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A Sacrifice of 
"SeVentt^^Six 



• 3S 



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NATHAN HALE 




Ellen Morgan Frisbie 




NATIIAN HAl.K >TArL"K ON VALE COLLE(;K CAMPrs, 
New Haven, Conn. 

Bola l^y..ii Pratt. Sculptor. 



A SACRIFICE OF "SEVENTY-SIX" 



NATHAN HALE 



One of the fortunate few who do not die ' 



1776 



' In ' Seventy-Six,' George Third, tlie British King, 
Commands his Hessian soldiers, forth to bring 
Tlieir burnislied arms, and cross the stormy sea, 
To crusli a people struggling to be free." 

Elizai'.eth G. Bariser. 






By Elle.n Morgan Frisbie, 

Registrar of Llcretia Shaw Chapter, D. A. R. 

Author of "'Henry Sylvester Cornwell," 

"Poet of Fancy." 



COl'YRIGHT 1915 
BY ELLEN MORGAN FRISBIK 



io 



vi' 



iCI.A4HaB8 



HINCHAM PRINT 

NEW LONDON, CONNECTICIT 

U. S. A. 



AUG ;>5 Idlb 



This little tribute to the memory of 

Connecticut's distinguished son, 

and the youthful hero of our country, 

NATHAN HALE, 

is dedicated to the 

Daughters and the Sons of the American Revolution 

and the 
Daughters and the Sons of the American Reyuhlic. 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Fkostispiece — Xathax Hale Statx"e on "i ale College 
Camtvs. Se-w Haven. Conn. 

The Bothood Home of Nathax Hale. Sontb CoTentry. 

Conn S 

Joshua's Shempipie ok Lake WAMGrxBACG. ... n 

N.\THAS Hale Statte a2«> - CositEcnctrT Hall." New 

Haven. Conn.. u 

X.\THAX Hale Schoolhocse, Bnlkelev Sqoare and Hnnting- 

too Street. New London. Conn., ..... 15 

Caktais Moxteesso«. (Aid-de-camp to Sir William Howe) 
who befriended Hale in his last hoars and preserred 
bis last words. ........ 20 

Madame Lucretl\ Shaw, the Patron Saint of Lncretia ^taw 

Chapter. D. A. R.. New London. Conn.. ... 33 

Shaw Massios. Bctlt 1753. the Hon^ of the New London 

Coantj Historical Societj. ...... 34 

Shaw Maxsiox. Riae View, from the garden near the 

summer house on "the rocks." ..... 36 

Hempstead Hocse. New Loxi>ox, Cosx., a '-fortified 

hoose," built in 1643. the birthplace of Sergeant Stephen 
Hempstead, the confidential friend of Nathan Hale. . 3S 

H.U.E ToMBSTOXE in Cenjeterr in Soath Coventry. Conn.. . 42 

Nathan Hale Moj^tment in Cemetery in South Coventrr, 

Conn. . erected in 1846. . 43 

Nathan Hale Stati-e, erected in City Hall Park. New York 
City — .\ Parade Ground for Washington's Troops in 
1776 — hj the Sons of the Revolution in the State of 
New York, ......... 44 

Nathan H.vle Schoolhocse en E.\st H.\i>d.\m. Conn., 
where the Yale graduate began his career as a teacher 
in 1773 46 

Nath.\n Hale Pedest.vl, East Haddam. Conn., marking 
the original site <h the Nathan Hale Schoolhouse in 
East Haddam, Conn.. .... 47 

"Ye Towjpe's Axtientest Bciuall Pl.\ce,'" 51 

George Ditdley Seymoc*. Owner and Preserver of the 

Hale Homestead in Sooth Coventrr, Conn., ^6 



FOREWORD. 

Lucretia Shaw Chapter. Daughters of the American Revolu- 
tion, of Xew London, is the custodian of the Xathan Hale 
Schoolhouse on '-Ye Towne's Antientest Buriall Place" in 
Huntington Street. 

The Daughters '• keep open house "' there two afternoons in 
each week, during the summer months. 

Many strangers are attracted to the quaint building in its 
ancient (though not its original) setting, and are interested in 
the stor}' of its most famous Master's sad fate. 

Many visitors have inquired : " Is there not. on sale, some 
souvenir booklet on Xathan Hale ? " 

The Regent of the Chapter, Mrs. Sidney Hale Miner, recently 
appointed a committee of three. Mrs. Mary Packer Clark, Miss 
X'ettie Jay Bishop, with the Registrar of the Chapter as chair- 
man, for this purpose, and the committee respectfully submits 
the storj- of Xathan Hale in this little brochure. 

The author wishes to make grateful acknowledgment of 
valuable assistance received from George Dudley Seymour, Esq., 
of New Haven, Hon. E. Hart Fenn, Secretary' of Sons of the 
Revolution of the State of Connecticut, Charles Barney Whittlesey, 
Esq.. Historian of the Sons of the Revolution of the State of 
Connecticut. Henry Russell Browne, Esq., Secretary of the Sons 
of the Revolution of the State of X'ew York. L. R. Hammond, 
Esq., of the Sa/unwy Chronicle of X'ew Haven, and Louis 
Kingsbury, Esq., of South Coventry. 

Authorities consulted: Professor Henry Phelps Johnston, 
of the College of the City of X'ew York, Benson J. Lossing and 
L \\'. Stuart, Hale's first biographer, in 1856. 

E. M. F. 



A SACRIFICE OF "SEVENTY-SIX" 



NATHAN HALE 



" He hath bought his eternity with a little hour, and is not dead. 
Death only dies." 



Scholar— Teacher — Soldier— Martyr 

born at coventry, conn., died in new york city 

june 6, 1755 september 22, 1776 

NATHAN HALE. 

One hero dies — a thousand new ones rise, 
As flowers are sown where perfect blossoms fall ; 

There quite unknown, the name of Hale now cries 
Wherever duty sounds her silent call. 

With head erect he moves and stately pace. 

To meet an awful doom — no ribald jest 
Brings scorn or hate to that exalted face ; 

His thoughts are far away, poised and at rest ; 

Now on the scaffold see him turn and bid 

Farewell to home and all his heart holds dear. 

Majestic presence! — all man's weakness hid. 
And all his strength in that last hour made clear : 

" My sole regret, that it is mine to give 
Only one life, that my dear land may live." 

— I Vi Ilia III Ordzuay Partridi^e. 

In a beautiful rolling country about twenty miles east of 
Hartford, Conn., and about three miles from the pretty village 
of South Coventry, in Tolland County, stands the boyhood home 
of Captain Nathan Hale. 

By remarkably good fortune the house stands today in almost 
exactly the same shape in which it was built by Deacon Richard 
Hale. 

It is a large, substantial, characteristic Connecticut farm- 
house, standing some six hundred and sixty feet above sea level, 
commanding a distant and beautiful view of the Bolton hills. 

It was erected, as a recently discovered manuscript reveals, 
in 1762, though not interiorly finished until later. 

Nathan Hale was probably born in an earlier house near the 



A SACRIFICE OF -'SEVENTY-SIX'' 



site of the present one, which was his home from 1762 until " he 
resigned his life as a sacrifice to his country's liberty " in 1 776. 

The local tradition ib that the house was built when Nathan 
was a little boy and this tradition is now confirmed by the man- 
uscript above referred to. 

In 1675, large tracts of thousands of acres in this region were 
owned by Attawanhood, familiarly known as Joshua, the third 




IHK j;()\Ht>()D HUAIE Ul- .NAlliA.N HALE 
South Coventry, Conn. 

son of Uncas, the famous Sachem of the Mohegan Indians. 

Joshua, who was Sachem of the western Nehantics, was also 
a friend of the white men, and in February, 1675, "being sick 
in body," he made a will in which he gave thousands of acres of 
land to his many English friends. 

The town of Coventry was laid out in 1708 by authority of 
the General Assembly of the Colony, and was part of a tract 
willed to prominent settlers of Hartford and New London by 
Attawanhood (or Joshua), the son of Uncas. 

The Connecticut Assembly gave the town its name in 1711, 
no doubt in honor of old Coventry in England. 

In 1710-1711, the home of Samuel Birchard, the original 
settler, was the only house in the vicinity of the beautiful sheet 
of water, called Shempipie by Joshua, but which later received 
the name ot Lake Wamgumbaug. The site of the Birchard 
house is marked by a small sign. 



NATHAN HALE 



The Nathan Hale homestead, not far from the lake, in danger 
of falling into uninterested hands, was recently purchased by 
George Dudley Seymour, Esq., of New Haven, a descendant of 
Samuel Birchard, the original settler of Coventry, and Mr. Sey- 
mour's acquisition of this property assures the preservation of 
one more historic place in the State of Connecticut. 

An immense oak tree (under whose wide spreading branches 
tradition says the Indians held their council meetings) stands on 
the bounds of the Hale homestead, and on this ancient tree its 
new owner has appropriately bestowed the name of " Joshua's 
Oak." 

On his mother's side Nathan was descended from Elder John 
Strong, who in 1630 sailed from Plymouth, England, and was 
one of the founders of Dorchester, Mass. 

Prof. Johnston writes: "The Strongs, like the Hales, were 
a typical family through whom * * * ^^ ^j.g enabled 
to observe the working of domestic and social influences in 
colonial life " * * * u Success seems to have attended 
the enterprise and hard labors of these families." * * * 
" From the town record we learn that as early as 1724, Justice 
Strong was able to turn over to his son, Captain Strong, a farm 
of ninety acres, in consideration of ' parental love and affection,' " 
and Richard Hale purchased from * * * ^^^ ^f 
the original proprietors of the Coventry tract, an extensive farm 
of two hundred and fifty acres. * * * Such was Hale's 
ancestral background. Solid qualities, excellent traits, and 
simple ways." 

'•' Ancestry meant much in those days." 

The Hale and Strong families, and farms, were united when 
Elizabeth Strong was given m marriage to Richard Hale on the 
second day of May, 1746, and Nathan was the sixth in a family 
of twelve children. 

Deacon Richard Hale held offices in both town and eccle- 
siastical societies, and represented his town in the Connecticut 
Assembly, and it was said of him : " Never a man worked so 
hard for both worlds as Deacon Hale." 

A serious man, from whom Nathan seems to have inherited 
that steadfastness of purpose, which was a marked characteristic 
of the martyr. 

Nathan's mother was a domestic woman, devoted to her 
home and family, with religious inclinations which were trans- 
mitted to her son. A most worthy daughter of that "good 
grandmother," Preserved Strong of whom Nathan wrote : " Has 



A SACRIFICE OF '' SE^'EXTl'-SIA" 



she tiot repeatedly favored us wif/i her tejider, most important advice 1 
The natural tic is sufficient, but increased />y so much goodness, our 
gratitude cannot he too sensilder 

Stuart, Hale's first biographer, in 1856, described the family 
as " a quiet, strict, godly household where the Bible ruled and 
family prayers never failed, nor was grace omitted at meals, nor 
work done after sundown on a Saturday night." 

Quoting Stuart again : " Nathan early exhibited a fondness 
for those rural sports, to which such a birthplace and scenery 
naturally invited him. He loved the gun and fishing rod. 
* * * He was fond of running and leaping * * 
firing at a mark * * playing ball, etc." 

Not robust in early boyhood he strengthened himself by 
exercise and simple diet, and " with the growth of his body, his 
mind, naturally bright and active, developed rapidly." "He 
mastered his books with ease * * * ^cxxdi was con- 
stantly applying his information." 

The "portrait" of Nathan Hale, recently discovered on the 
" northwest chamber " door, in the homestead, would indicate this 
was Nathan's room. On the inner side of the only door leading 
into the northwest chamber is the profile, " Slightly incised in 
the soft wood and a little larger than life. Shadow portraits, 
made by tracing the shadow cast by a candle, were not uncommon 
at the time this shadow profile of Nathan was made." The 
profile remained, exposed to view many years, remembered by 
later generations of the Hale family, and particularly by Nathan's 
niece, Rebecca (Hale) Abbot. 

In 1846, on the completion of the Hale monument, Mrs. 
Abbot, called at the homestead, requesting to see the profile, 
and found to her surprise, the room, including the door, had 
been painted. 

Mr. George Dudley Seymour, the owner and preserver of the 
" homestead," has had the paint removed and the fair shadow 
profile came to view on Nathan's chamber door. 

It was a letter dictated by Mrs. Rebecca Hale Abbot, a 
daughter of Lieutenant Joseph Hale, one of Nathan's brothers, 
which led to the discovery by Mr. Seymour, of the profile portrait, 
which probably had not seen the light for three-quarters of a 
century. 

The old Congregational meeting-house where the Hale family 
worshiped was burned several years ago. It stood facing the 
town green and overlooking Lake Wamgumbaug, the beautiful 
sheet of water that Nathan loved and where he swam and fished 
when a boy. 



NATHAN HALE 



A mile, or morC; from the Hale home, down the " Old South 
Road " stands the ancient parsonage where Enoch and Nathan 
used to go to recite their Latin to the Rev. Joseph Huntington, 
a well known Congregational clergyman, who prepared the 
brothers for Yale College. 

In September, 1769, they entered that institution, Nathan, 
the younger, being then in his fifteenth year, and in the class- 
room they were known as " Hale primus " and " Hale secundus " 
and " Nathan stood among the highest in all-around attainments, 
the classics, especially," and was one of the youngest as well as 
one of the best students ever graduated from Yale College. 




JOSHUA'S SHEMPIPIE OR LAKE WAMGUMBATCi 

He was considered the best athlete the college had produced, 
and the space he covered in his famous jump on the New Haven 
" Green " was shown for many years after he left his alma mater. 

One of the founders of Linonia, a debating society to which 
the brothers belonged, Nathan's force and logic in argument 
made him a formidable opponent, and the minutes of this society 
in Hale's handwriting are among the most precious treasures of 
the University. 

Commencement Day for Nathan Hale's class, with thirty-six 
graduates, was on September 3, 1773, when he was eighteen 
years old, and " the treat of the day," was a debate on the perti- 
nent question : " Whether the Education of Daughters be not, 
without just reason, more neglected than that of sons ? " 



A SACRIFICE OF ''SEVENTY-SIX 



Nathan triumphantly conducted the argument for the 
" Daughters '' with whom he was a general favorite. 

Among his intimate college friends was General Hull, who 
was, later one of the charter members of the "Cincinnati." 
His classmate, Benjamin Tallmadge, was the colonel of the Revo- 
lutionary army, who, by a peculiar irony of fate, had charge of 
Major John Andre, during his imprisonment. 

One of the three original college buildings remains, " Conn- 
ecticut Hall," in which Hale undoubtedly roomed during his 
four years' course. 




NATHAN HALE STATUE AND " CONNECTICl'T HALL" 
New Haven, Conn. 

For the first two or three years in college, the Hale brothers, 
probably, wore homespun clothing. At one time Enoch was 
called to Coventry to be fitted to a suit, and their father wrote : 
" I sopose one mesure will do for both of you." 

Quoting again from their father : " If you do not one of you 
come home I don't see but that you must do without any New 
Close until after Commensment." 



NATHAN HALE 13 



Again : " I hope you will carefully mind your studies that 
your time be not lost and that you mind all the orders of College 
with care and be sure above all forget not to Learne Christ 
while you are busy in other studies." And again : " Shun all 
vice, especially card playing." 

Nathan's mother died when he was twelve years old, and it 
was her wish and hope that he would enter the ministry, but on 
leaving college he decided upon teaching, " The usual step 
before a calling." 

He accepted a position at East Haddam, Conn., a town of 
agricultural and shipping interests, on the Connecticut River, 
which was also called Moodus, abbreviated from the Indian 
name " Machimoodus " — " the place of the noises." The name 
Moodus designates at the present day the manufacturing village 
a few miles above East Haddam. 

Stuart wrote : " The rich scenery of the town, its rocky uneven 
face, the phenomena from which it derives its Indian name, its 
numerous legends of Indian Powwows, its Mount Tom and 
Salmon River, were all sources of great delight to the young 
instructor, as habitually, the cares of school being over, he 
wandered around for air and exercise, for pleasure and the 
sports of the chase, there 

" Where the little country girls 
Still stop to whisper, and listen, and look, 
And tell, while dressing their sunny curls, 

Of the Black Fox of Salmon Brook." 

Hale, in his letters, called the place " Modus," which in his 
day was a settlement of good society and considerable wealth, 
but his stay there was a short one of four or five months. 

Preserved by Stuart, the recollections of Mrs, Hannah 
(Green) Pierson (who knew Hale well when he lived in this river 
town) present this attractive picture of the youthful tutor : " He 
was a happy and faithful teacher ; everybody loved him, he was 
so sprightly, intelligent, and kind, and — so handsome." 

Three months before the Hale brothers entered college, their 
father married Mrs. Abigail Adams of Canterbury, and subse- 
quently her two daughters, Sarah and Alice, became members 
of the household at South Coventry, and an older son, John, 
promptly fell in love with Sarah and married her in 1771. 

Alice Adams was distinguished for her intelligence and 
beauty, and very soon Nathan and Enoch were strongly attached 
to her. 



14 A SACRIFICE O^ ''SEVENTY-SIX" 

HALE TO -'ALICIA." 
Love poem without date. 

Alicia, born with striking cliarm 

Fair in thy form, still fairer in thy mind, 
With beauty, wisdom, sense with sweetness joined. 



Let others toil amidst the lofty air 
F>y fancy led through every cloud above 
Let empty follies build the castles there 
My thoughts are settled on the friend I love 



T'is friendship pure that now demands my lays 
A theme sincere that aids my feeble song 



Far from the seat of pleasure now I roam 

The pleasing landscape now no more I see 

Vet absence nea'r shall take my thoughts from home 

Nor time efface my due regards for thee. 

The parents seem to have looked upon their attachment with 
disfavor on account of the youthfulness of the couple, and Deacon 
Hale's desire to see his son enter the ministry, probably, caused 
him to think an early engagement would prove more of a 
hindrance than a help to Nathan during his college course, so 
in February, 1 773, Alice was prevailed upon to accept a well-to-do 
suitor in Mr. Elijah Ripley, of South Coventry. 

Early in December, 1773, Nathan was corresponding with 
Mr. Timothy Green of New London, with reference to his 
engagement as " Master " of the " Union School," for the spring 
term of the following year. 

The proprietors of the Union School were 

John Winthrop, Esq., Capt. Joseph Packwood, 

Capt. Guy Richards, Capt. William. Packwood, 

Duncan Stewart, Esq., Capt. Richard Deshon, 

Capt. Robinson Mumford, Mr. John Richards, 

Mr. Roger Gibson, Richard Law, Esq., 

Winthrop Saltonstall, Esq., Mr. Timothy Green, 

Capt. David Mumford, Mr. Samuel Belden, 

Thomas Mumford, Jeremiah Miller, Elsq., 

Mr. Silas Church, Capt. Russel Hubbard, 

Capt. Michael Mellaly, Mr. Nathaniel Shaw, Jr., 

Capt. Thomas Allen, Capt. John Crocker, 

Capt. Charles Chadwick, Doct. Thomas Coit, 



NATHAN If ALE 



15 



and in the petition of incorporation the statement is made they 
"have at great cost erected a schoolhouse for the advancement 
of learning." 

The statement has been accepted that there were twelve 
proprietors of the Union Scliool, but in a call for the meeting 
which Nathan Hale sent to the proprietors on February 22, 1775, 
he addresses the twenty-four proprietors by name, a fact of 
special interest to the people of New London. 

The Union Schoolhouse was built in 1774, and stood origin- 
ally, on what is now the northwest corner of State and Union 
Streets, the site of the present Crocker House. 




■Its: ft^il 

^ATHA^ HALE s( HOOLHOl SK 
]!ulkeley S(£uaie and Huntington Street, New London, Conn. 

The land records of New London give the dimensions of the 
lot as forty by fifty feet, and for the " consideration of one share 
of stock" — in the Union School — John Richards sold in 1782 to 
the proprietors of Union School the land on which the school- 
house was then standing. Probably the school building was 
erected on leased land or by some arrangement equivalent to 
lease. These peculiarities of transferring land are frequently 
discovered in the early records of New London. 

Union Street was opened at a later date and received its 
name from the Union School. 



i6 A SACNfFICE OF ''SEl'EXTV-S/A" 



The school building was removed to the opposite side of 
Union Street in 1830. 

The families of the " proprietors " formed agreeable compan- 
ions for the young teacher, and the charm of his conversation 
made him the favorite of all, of the old as well as the young, in 
every domestic and social circle. 

Miss Caulkins, who wrote in 1852, described Hale as a man 
of many agreeable qualities, social, animated, and a favorite 
among the ladies. 

Mrs. Elizabeth Poole, " an inmate of the same family with the 
deeply lamented Capt. Hale while he taught school in New 
London," said of him : " His capacity as a teacher, and the 
mildness of his mode of instruction, was highly appreciated by 
parents and pupils ; his appearance, manners and temper secured 
the purest affection of those to whom he was known." 

One of his New London scholars, Samuel Green, left this 
description of him : " His manners were engaging and genteel ; 
his scholars all loved him. While he was not severe, there was 
something determined in the man which gave him a control over 
boys that was remarkable. He had a way of imparting his views 
to others in a simple, natural method, without ostentation or 
egotism, which is a rare gift." 

Nathan wrote from New London, to his uncle: " I have a 
siiiool of jz boys, about half Latin, the rest English. * * * 
/;/ addition I have kept during the summer, a morning sehool, 
between the hours of five and seven, of about 10 young ladies for 
which I have received 6s. a scholar by the quarter." 

It would be interesting from a New London standpoint if the 
names of these young women could be ascertained, but so far, 
with a few exceptions, they have not been identified. 

When Nathan Hale visited his home " on leave " from Camp 
Winter Hill, in January, 1776, he came down to New London 
and received " some old dues for Louisa fox's school^ " 

In the postscript of a letter to Hale from Gilbert Saltonstall, 
dated December 18, 1775, his friendly correspondent wrote: 
" The young girls, B. Coit S. & P. Belden have frequently desired 
their complim'" to Master, but I've never thought of mentioning 
it till now- -You must write someth? in your next by way of 
P. S that I may show it them. 

Quoting again from Hale's letters: " The people 7c>ith whom I 
live are free and generous. * * * 2 hey are desirous that 
Izoould continue a/ul settle in the school and propose a considerable 
increase in 7oages.'" * * * "/ have a very convenient 
school house and the people are kind and sociable." 



JVA THA N HALE 17 



Again : * * * u j/j, fijjig /^ pretty fully occupied, 
profitably, I hope to my pupils and to their teacher.''^ 

In a letter I0 the Trustees of Union School, New London, 
Hale wrote: " School keeping is a business of which 1 7vos aiicays 
fond: but since my residence in this Tlnan every thing has conspired 
to render it more agreeabble.''' 

To a friend in New Naven he wrote: lam happily situated : 
I love my employment : find many fricinis among strangers : have 
time for scientific study, and seem to fill the place assigned me with 
satisfaction.'''' 

The news of the battle of Lexington, April 19, 1775, was 
received in New London late one afternoon, and created intense 
excitement, and in the evening an enthusiastic meeting was held 
in Miner's Tavern — in the rear of the present Burkle building, 
next north of the Whaling Bank, on Bank Street, New London, 
when Nathan Hale made his famous speech. 

In favor of marching at once to Boston he made a public 
demand for the freedom of the colonies when he said: "Z^/ 
us march inunediatelv and never lay down our arms until we obtain 
our ituiependencer 

Bertha Palmer Attwood relates the story of a small boy who 
was present at this meeting, and as he was returning with his 
father to their home he inquired: " What was that long word, 
father? Independence? What does it mean?" "Alas! my son," 
replied the father, " Too w^ell we know it may mean the hang- 
man's rope." 

The patriotic Hale enlisted and was made a lieutenant in a 
company in Colonel Webb's regiment. He resigned his position 
as teacher, and in a most affecting interview with his pupils, he 
took each boy by the hand in an affectionate farewell. 

Lieutenant Hale took part in the siege of Boston and received 
a commission as Captain in January, 1766, became Captain in 
Connecticut Rangers in May under command of Lieutenant 
Colonel Knowlton of Ashford, Conn., who was distinguished at 
Bunker Hill. 

The youthful officer was idolized by his soldiers, and 
instances of his generosity are noted, when pay-day being long 
deferred he advanced money from his own purse. 

There is evidence of his having been a social favorite ; in his 
diary are found notes of his having dined with General Putnam, 
Captain Hull, Dr. Wolcott and other men of distinction. 

From Camp " Winter Hill," Hale wrote Betsey Christophers : 
" My curiosity is satisfied. * * * Not that I am dis- 



iS .1 SACRIFICE OF ^\SEr£ATV-S/A '' 

lontciitcil — so far from it, that m t/ie prcsctit coiidilion of //i/>ii:^s I 
would not accept a furlough u<cr(e) it offered me,'' and then he 
commiserates her in a friendly way about the scarcity of young 
men there would be in New London that winter. 

The Betsey Christophers letter is now the property of Yale 
College as that institution purchased it for the neat sum of 
$1,575.00. The letter appears in the addenda. 

Early in 1775, Alice Ripley returned to the Hale homestead, 
a widow with an infant son who did not long survive his father, 
and in January, 1776, Nathan Hale accepted a "furlough " and 
visited his home, and tradition says he and Alice Ripley became 
engaged, expecting to be married at the close of the war. 

The story of the disastrous defeat and the retreat after the 
Battle of Long Island shows the serious condition of the 
American army when General Washington requested Colonel 
Knowlton to call his officers together and make known to them 
the necessities of the occasion and ask for a volunteer to enter 
the British lines. 

There was needed for the errand a good draughtsman, one 
skilled in military and scientific knowledge, with courage and 
caution, to secure details concerning the plans and resources of 
the enemy, which information the commander-in-chief considered 
essential to the success of the American arms. 

Captain Nathan Hale responded to the call, and accepted 
the perilous trust, in these words : " I ivill undertake it.' 

His brother officers tried to influence him by saying that 
detection and death would certainly follow such an enterprise. 
To his friend. Captain William Hull, Hale replied: "7 am 
fully sensible of the consequences of discovery and capture in such a 
situation. But for a year I have been attached to the army a/id 
have not rendered any material service udiile receiving a compensation 
for 7idiiih I make no retur)i. Yet I am not influenced by the 
expectation of promotion or pecuniary reivards. I i^'ish to l>e useful, 
and any kind of service necessary to the public good, becomes honor- 
able by being necessary. If the exigencies of my country demand 
a peculiar service, its claims to that service are imperious. 

After receiving instructions probably from Colonel Knowlton, 
J^fathan Hale started on his lonely errand with his confidential 
friend, Stephen Hempstead, of New London, a sergeant in his 
company, who had obtained permission to accompany him as far 
as possible on this dangerous expedition. 



NATHAN HALE 19 



They proceeded along the Connecticut shore as far as Nor- 
walk, and there Captain Hale secured the privateer Schuyler to 
convey him across the Sound to Huntington, Long Island. 

He was dressed in the homespun garments of the school- 
master, which, it has been said, he actually wore while he was 
teaching in New London, and from the Hempstead narrative we 
learn that Hale left with his close friend, his uniform, commis- 
sion, public and private papers; also his silver shoe buckles, 
saying : " They would not ciunport ivith my character as school- 
7naster'^ but he retained his college diploma as an assistance in 
his disguise. 

It was arranged that Hempstead should meet him on his 
return, about the twentieth of September, in Norwalk, and here 
the two friends parted for the last time. 

A sergeant, who had been in the French and Indian wars, 
was approached on the subject of this dangerous errand and 
promptly refused, saying he was " ready to fight the British at 
any time and place," but he, for one did not "feel willing to go 
among them to be hung up like a dog." 

The assertion has been made that Stephen Hempstead vol- 
unteered to go on this mission, but Nathan Hale w^as chosen 
for the errand. 

Various stories of Captain Hale's apprehension have been 
in circulation, but the most probable of all suggests New York, 
or its close vicinity, as having been the place of his capture. 
That " it was suspected by his movements that he wanted to get 
out of New York; " that he was " apprehended" on the night of 
September 2 1 st, and met his fate at eleven o'clock on the morning 
of the 22nd, seem to confirm this theory. 

The prisoner was conveyed to General Howe's headquarters 
in the mansion of James Beekman, at Mount Pleasant, as the 
high bank at East River was called, and confined one night in 
the greenhouse on the estate. 

The statement has been made that Lord Howe was amazed 
at the accuracy and the extent of the memoranda which Hale 
had secured in the brief time he had been between the lines, and 
was so impressed with the personality of the prisoner that he 
was promised a release if he would join the British army. 

Howe wrote an order to Provost Marshal Cunningham " to 
receive the body of Nathan Hale, a captain in the rebel army, 
and at daybreak the next morning, September 22, 1776, to see 
him hanged by the neck until dead." 



A SACRIFICE OF ''SEVENTY-SIX'' 



On the morning of Nathan Hale's capture a fire was acciden- 
tally (?) started near what is now the Staten Island Ferry. The 
flames spread rapidly and five hundred dwellings were destroyed. 

The British asserted that the conflagration was the revenge 
of Whig incendiaries, and the flames were still raging when 
Hale was awaiting his doom on that Sunday morning. 




( A I'TA IN MON 'n\ ESSOK 

(Aicl-(le-<:ainp to Sir William Howe) wlio befriended Hale in his last hours 
and preserved his last words 

l''roin a painting from Copley 

An officer, Captain John Montressor, of the British Engineer 
Corps, then serving as aide-de-camp to Sir William Howe, kindly 
furnished the Bible and writing materials which the cruel Cun- 
ningham had refused him, and Hale spent his last morning in 



NATHAN HALE 



writing to his loved ones, only to see his letters destroyed by 
Cunningham, who said: "The rebels should never know they 
had a man who could die with such firmness." 

The scene of Nathan Hale's execution " in front of Artillery 
Park," was, writes Prof. Johnston, " A spot approximately on 
the line of Third Avenue, between Sixty-sixth and Sixty-eighth 
Streets," near the Dove Tavern. 

"Under the shadow of Lord Howe's headquarters," while 
the prisoner, guarded and pinioned was standing on a ladder 
waiting for the rope to be thrown over a tree, Cunningham 
demanded of him a confession and his response contained his 
last words : " / only regret that I have but one life to lose for my 
country.'' 

Enraged at this reply the brutal Provost Marshal shouted : 
" Swing the rebel off ! " 

Cunningham's cruelties were notorious, and it is worthy of 
notice that one historian writes, upon the scaffold in England, 
after the war, Cunningham confessed his monstrous crimes. 

The closing details of Hale's last hour were received from 
Captain Montressor, a witness of the execution, who came to the 
American camp under a flag of truce on an errand concerning 
the exchange of some prisoners, and from him was received the 
information that Captain Hale had been arrested within the 
British lines, condemned as a spy and executed that morning. 

Several years after the death of Nathan Hale, Alice Ripley 
married Mr. William Lawrence, the son of a former treasurer of 
Connecticut, and lived at Hartford, Conn., to the age of eighty- 
eight years, and was remembered by her friends and grand- 
children as a sweet, lovely, intellectual woman. Though her 
second marriage seems to have been a very happy one, she 
cherished the memory of her youthful lover and her last words 
were : " Write to Nathan." 

A copy of her portrait hangs in the Athenaeum at Hartford. 

Alice Lawrence'sreminiscences of Hale describe him as nearly 
six feet in height, erect in form, slender, powerful, remarkable 
for grace of movement and manner, and with a full, handsomely 
featured face and a firm but sympathetic expression. 

Altogether, her description of the martyr's appearance cor- 
responds with the personal recollections of his companion at 
arms, Lieut. Elisha Bostwick, which was preserved on the lieu- 
tenant's commission, and recently discovered among the Revol- 
utionary pension roles, in Washington, a copy of which may be 
found in the addenda. 



A SACRIFICE OF '' SEVE\TY-S/X 



Timothy Dvvight, Hale's tutor at Yale College, and afterwards 
president of that institution, in his " Conquest of Canaan," pays 
this tribute to his friend and pupil ; 

Thus while fond virtue wished in vain to save, 

Hale, bright and generous, found a hapless grave. 

With genius' living flame his bosom glowed. 

And science lured him to her sweet abode; 

In Worth's fair path his feet adventured far 

The pride of Peace, the rising hope of War ; 

In duty firm, in danger calm as even — 

To friends unchanging, and sincere to Heaven 

How short his course, the prize how early won. 

While weeping Friendship mourns her favorite gone. 

A certain questionable sentimentality has associated and 
compared the mission of Captain Hale to that of Major Andre 

Both were young, brave, accomplished beyond most of the 
young men of their day, and each was devoted to his country. 

Andre, handsome, fascinating and cultivated, to whom the 
officers of the British army, many of them scions of the English 
nobility, were devotedly attached. 

Hale was the equal of Andre in personal appearance, in 
talent, in agreeable manners — but here the comparison ends, for 
Hale was superior to Andre in the test of character. 

Nathan Hale went on his errand, alone, to serve his country 
in her greatest need, with his life in his hand if the occasion 
should require the sacrifice. 

John Andre came with a bribe in his hand to purchase the 
crime of treason. 

It was at the Beekman mansion that Andre received his final 
instructions before going up the Hudson River to meet Benedict 
Arnold, for it was to Andre that Arnold resolved to surrender 
West Point. 

One writer asserts: "The Americans would gladly have 
saved the life of Andre could Arnold have been given up to 
them. Unofficial overtures were made to General Clinton to 
exchange Arnold for Andre, but honor forbade the act." 

Arnold escaped, but Major Andre, the adjutant general of 
the British army who came as a spy to negotiate, remained a 
prisoner. 

" Andre walked to the place of execution," writes a contempo- 
rary historian, "With firmness, composure and dignity." Upon 
seeing the preparations he inquired with some degree of concern : 
" Must I die in this manner? I am reconciled to my fate, but 
not to the mode," but added: "It will be but a momentary 



NATHAN HALE 23 



pang." * * * I' He ascended the cart with a pleas- 
ant countenance which excited the admiration and melted the 
hearts of all spectators." 

" That event," quoting from Lossing, " has two prominent 
aspects, namely : the courage, patriotism, faith in the American 
people, and the unswerving fidelity in the discharge of a momen- 
tous trust, of our beloved Washington and his officers, in the 
face of a most extraordinary temptation to do otherwise ; and 
the execution as a spy of the adjutant-general of the British army, 
while that army, twenty thousand strong, was lying only a few 
miles distant supported by powerful ships of war." 

The memorial stone to Major Andre, erected at Tappaan, 
bears on its west side an inscription written by Dean Stanley. 

On the north face : 

" He was more unfortunate than criminal." 
" An accomplislTed man and gallant ofticer." 

— George U'dshingfoii. 

Quoting again from Lossing : " The first of these two lines 
is quoted from a letter of Washington to Count de Rochambeau. 
* * * The second line is from the sentence of a letter 
written by Washington to Colonel John Laurens." 

" How gaily shone on thy bright morn of youth, 
The star of pleasure, and the sun of truth ! 
Full from this source descended on thy mind 
Each generous virtue, and each taste refined. 
Young genius led thee to her vaiied fane, 
Bade thee ask all her gifts, nor ask in vain." 

"The Americans," wrote Elias Boudinot, L.L. D., "had a 
commander in-chief, who knew how to make his compassion for 
the unfortunate and his duty to those who depended upon him 
for protection to harmonize and influence his conduct. He 
treated Major Andre with the greatest tenderness, while he 
carried the sentence of the council into execution according to 
the laws of war." 

England enshrines the remains of Andre in Westminster 
Abbey, near the " Poet's Corner," where she cherishes the relics 
of her children of renown. 

The King settled a pension upon the family of Andre and 
" the honor of knighthood was conferred upon his brother to 
wipe out the imputed stain upon the family name." 

No stone, no memorial marks the grave of Nathan Hale. 
" He gave up youth, hope, ambition, love, life, all. for his native 
land." 



24 A SACRIFICE OR '' SEVENTY-SIX 



" His ashes, hidden or scattered, have left but one consoling 
retiection, that the soil of freedom holds them — the soil for which 
he lived and died."" 

" Shall haughty Britons in heroic lays, 
And tuneful numbers, chant their Andre's praise? 
And shall Columbia — where blest freedom reigns 
With gentle sway, to bless her happy plains, — 
Where, friendship, truth, and simple manners shine. 
And noblest science lifts her head divine; — 
Shall she forget a son's — a patriot's name, 
A hero's glory, and a martyr's fame ? 
And shall not one, of all her tuneful choir, 
Whose bosom glows with true poetic fire. 
Attempt to sing that dear departed youth. 
Who fell a victim in the cause of truth ? 
Rous'd by the thought, a friend presumes, thus late, 
Lov'd Hale, thy life and death to celebrate." 

Andre's reply as to his expectations of reward was, " Military 
glory, the applause of his king and his country, and perhaps a 
brigadier-ship," and his last words were a challenge to all men 
to witness his courage. " All I request of yt u, gentlemen, is 
that, while I acknowledge the propriety of my sentence, you will 
bear me witness that I die like a brave man." 

But Hale, above all thought of self, or of anything save his 
country's cause, left behind him that sublime sentiment by which 
he will always be remembered. 



ADDENDA. 



" During the last few years," writes Mr. Geo. Dudley Seymour, 
of New Haven, "Rival students and rival antiquarians have 
investigated every conceivable source of information for new 
facts about Hale. Now, just as Prof. Johnston's book is leaving 
the press, one of the most important Hale items in existence has 
come to light. Such happenings add zest and romance to the 
work of the historical student. 

" Buried in the archives of the pension office at Washington 
for upwards of eighty years, no one ever dreamed of examining 
the pension files of Elisha Bostwick for a personal description of 
Nathan Hale, * * * ^^t it was discovered to be 
one of the most precious files in the archives, in so far as it con- 



NATHAN HALE 25 



tained, in the handwriting of the pensioner, the most detailed 
and authoritative personal description of Captain Nathan Hale 
known to exist. 

" Elisha Bostwick's reminiscences as a Revolutionary soldier 
are written in his own hand upon the back and front of his 
commission, which bears the beautiful and characteristic signa- 
ture of John Hancock, President of the Continental Congress, 
and appoints : ' Elisha Bostwick, gentleman, second lieutenant 
of Captain Isaac Bostwick's company, in the 19th Regiment of 
Foot commanded by Col. Charles Webb." 

" The commission, which is dated January i, 1776, is a hand- 
some piece of printing, on a sheet of hand made paper, * * * 
in danger from falling to pieces on account of folding creases, it 
has now been mounted with great care between transparent 
sheets of the silk used for preserving old documents * * * 
descriptions of Hale that have come to us have been written by 
his college friends or pupils. 

" It IS gratifying to find a description of Hale's personal 
appearance and characteristics from a companion at arms, who 
did not know him except as a soldier. 

" It is a high tribute to Hale that fifty full years after his 
death, an old acquaintance living apart from the world should 
have been moved to pay such a beautiful tribute to him. 

" It is reassuring to have it confirm other accounts of Hale, 
though it is more detailed than any of them, and particularly 
that it should, by good fortune, so happily support Hale as he 
has been portrayed by the sculptor, and as he stands on the 
campus today. 

" A critical examination of the entire document shows its 
high evidential value. 

" Its interest to the antiquarian, to the historical student, and 
even to the average reader, is absorbing. 

" The figure of Washington, evoked by its reference to him 
is so striking that it is hardly surpassed in the whole range of 
Washingtoniana. 

'The anecdote of Colonel Scott is one of the best Revolu- 
tionary anecdotes. 

" The clearness of the writer's recollection and his power of 
description shows us that we may receive what he has to say 
about Nathan Hale with complete confidence." 



26 A SACN/F/CE OF '■•' SEVENTY-SIX" 



Copy ok Mr. Geor(;e Dudley Seymour's Certified Copy 
OF Lieut. Elisha Bostwick's Commission. 



Department of the Interior, 
pension bureau. 
Washington, D. C, December i, 1914. 

I, G. M. Saltzgaber, Commissioner of Pensions, do hereby 
certify that the accompanying pages numbered one (i), to eleven 
(11), inclusive, are truly copied from the originals on file in the 
Pension Bureau in the claim for pension of Elisha Bostwick, 
Revolutionary War, Survivor's Eile No. 10.376. 

In Testimony Whereof, I have hereunto subscribed my 
name and caused the seal of the Pension Bureau to be affixed, 
on the day and year above written. 

(Signed) Ci. M. Saltzgaber, 

(Seal) Commissioner of Pensions. 

IN CONGRESS 

The Delegates of the United Colonies of New Hampshire, 
Massachusetts-Bay, Rhode-Island, Connecticut, New York, 
New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, the Counties of Newcastle, Kent, 
and Sussex on Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, 
and South Carolina, to Elish : Bostwick 
Gentleman 

We reposing especial trust and confidence in your patriotism, 
valour, conduct and fidelity, DO by these presents constitute and 
appoint you to be Second Lieutenant of Captain Isaac Bostwicks 
Company in the nineteenth Regiment of foot Commanded by 
Colonel Charles Webb — in the army of the United Colonies, 
raised for the defence of American Liberty, and for repelling 
every hostile invasion thereof. You are therefore carefully and 
diligently to discharge the duty of Second Lieutenant by doing 
and performing all manner of things thereunto belonging. And 
we do strictly charge and require all officers and soldiers under 
your command, to be obedient to your orders, as Second Lieu- 
tenant And you are to observe and follow such orders and 
directions from time to time as you shall receive from this or a 
future Congress of the United Colonies, or Committee of Con- 
gress, for that purpose appointed, or C-ommander in Chief for 



NATHAN HALE 27 



the time being of the army of the United Colonies, or any other 

your superior officer, according to the rules and discipline of 

war, in pursuance of the trust reposed in you. 

This commission to continue in force until revoked by this or a 

future Congress. 

Attest 

By Order of the Congress, 
Cha Thompson Secy. 

John Hancock President. 
January the first 1776 — 



A Sketch &c — In the month of May 1775 I inlisted as Sergeant 
& Clark in Capt. Isaac Bostwicks Company, Colo. Charles 
Webbs Regt. match'd for Boston for 8 months, viz from ist May 
to last Deer. & when arived at Hartford reed, orders to go by 
water down Connecticut river to Lyme, where we kept Guard 
at Governor Griswolds house left by his family, the enemy being 
in the Sound ; thence march'd to Newlondon, kept guard there 
awhile — thence to Stonington & back to Newlondon, thence thro' 
Norwich, Providence &c to Genl. Washingtons head quarters at 
Cambridge — Encamped on Winterhill — there remained until first 
of Jany. 1776 when our Regt. was discharg'd — I then had the 
offer of a Lieutenancy in the Continental Army for 12 months 
in a new Regt. to be commanded by the same Colo. Charles 

Webb — Street Hall Lt. Colo. — John Brooks Major Capt. 

Bostwick went home to Newmilford to raise his new company, 
& I took winter quarters with the few men which then inlisted 
for the ensuing year, at the Temple house North of Bunkers 

hill In the Spring, the Regt. being fill'd up we were Stationed 

at Roxbury near Boston neck. — was ni the party which on the 
4th of March took possession of & fortified Dorchester heights 
under the command of Genl. Thomas — remained at Roxbury 
until the British evacuated Boston on the 17th day of March 
1 776 : upon which our Regt. with others reed, orders immediately 
to repair to New York : march'd direct to Newlondon ; thence 
by water to N. York, remained there and on long island until 

the retreat of our Army from N. York The first battle I was in 

was at the white plains, where our army was defeated Octr. 29th. 
Lt. Yates' Platoon which was next to that of mine received a 
Cannon shot which with one ball kill'd three men, namely — 
Serjeant Garret & Smith & Taylor, & Chilsey had one arm taken 
off by the same ball Some while after had orders to march into 
Jersey, cross'd the Hudson at Peekskill Novr. 15th. — on our 



28 A SACRIFICE OI' '' SE rEXTV-S/X" 



inarch thro' Jersey our General Charles Lee was taken Prisoner 
by a party of light horse, being put up for the night a mile or 
two in rear of our main Army, (which was a discouraging stroke 
to us for the time) — continued our march — crossed the Delaware 
& encamped at a place called Newtown on the Pensylvania side 
— and on the 24th of Deer, our whole Army, being very small 
Reed, marching orders : toward evening Crossed the Delaware 
9 or 10 miles North of Trenton : but by reason of ice in the river 
& the storm of snow «S,: hail the whole Army did not get across 
till late at night — it being dark every Officer comanding a platoon 
for distinction had a piece of white paper placed on his hat; & 
each Officer having a Watch at the time our line of march began 
had it set exactly by the time of his excellency's watch, — Soon 
began our March and march'd in the Storm till day break — a 
halt was made — at which time his excellency with his Aids came 
from the rear encouraging & talking to the soldiers as he rode 
by them toward the front & the words of his Excellency which 
I heard I well remember were these "Soldiers keep by your 
Officers, for Gods sake keep by your Officers" Spoken with a 
deep & solemn voice it being then twilight ; the horses taken out, 
& the Artillerymen harness'd & prepared march'd on & it was not 
long before we heard the tiring of our own Centrys of the enemy 
both on the North road that we ware in & the road which leads 
from Princeton into Trenton from the East ; & their out Guards 
retired firing: & our Army taking a very quick march soon 
entered the town on both roads at the same time; the Enemy 
having scarcely time to parade made but little resistance — their 
Artillery taken, about one thousand resign'd their arms all 
Hessians; the remainder crossing the bridge at the lower end 
of the town escaped — Their commander Colo. Rhall a Hessian 
officer was mortally wounded & perhaps 15 or 20 killd ; our loss 
only one killd, two officers & a few Soldiers wounded. — 
March'd the next day with our Prisoners back to our encamp- 
ment at Newtown — then recrossed the Delaware & returned back 
to Trenton & there on the first day of Jany. 1777 our years service 
expired. And then by the pressing Solicitation of General 
Washington a part of those whose time of service was out, con- 
sented on a ten dollars bounty to stay six weeks longer ; & 
although desirous to return home I engaged to stay, \: made 
every exertion in my power to make as many stay with me as I 
could: and before night on that same day an express from our 
piquet Guard inform'd that the Enemy were advancing upon us 
from Princeton : an Alarm was made, our Army crossed the 



JVA THA zV HA LE 29 



bridge and formed on the South side of the Creek South of the 
town : where, in the evening & thro' the iiight fires were kept 
burning, while our Army by a Cercuitous night march arived by 
sunrise the next morning at Princeton ; where we attack'd those 
of the enemy who were left there kill'd about one hundred & 
took about 300 prisoners — (In this acction it was said that the 
person of his excellency was to much exposed to the enemy's fire) 
NB: The body of a British Capt. by the name of Lesslie was 
found among the dead, which was carried along with us in a 
waggon & the next day buried with the honors of war — he was 
said to be a Nobleman's son — General Mercer of the Pensyl 
vania Melitia & sundry other excellent officers & soldiers were 
killd in this Battle — The prisoners being British & some high- 
landers with their Scotch Plaid dress were conducted to Peeks- 
kill ; from whence those of us who composed their guard return'd 
to head quarters at Morristown — The enemy having with drawn 
to Brunswick made continual excurtions after forage & plunder 
— , which rendered it necessary we should have strong guards 
on the lines — I was detached in one of them of 300 men under 
Colo. Scott for a fortnight, during which time we all slept on 
our arms «& in our clothes — while we lay at a place called 
Quibbletown, had sundry skirmishes with those foraging parties, 
one of which was severe ; we drove them some time «Sr they began 
to leave their waggons, but at last they brought their Artillery 
to bear upon us & we having none retreated leaving our wounded 
in the field, among which was our Adjutant — Kelley — an Active 
charming Officer, he was wounded in the flesh of his thigh by a 
musket ball, he could still walk & the soldiers endeavoured to 
bring him off, but being press'd he told them to leave him, 
saying I must be a prisoner : — but horrid to tell, as soon as they 
came to him while asking for quarter they took his own Rifie & 
with the but of it broke & pounded his skull to pieces & then 
cutting off both skirts of his coat took them off with both pockets 
& their contents — and a Soldier in my Platoon — xA.ndrew Cush- 
man a pleasant youth was left among the wounded, & with the 
rest were all murdered with the Bayonet by repeated Stabs, 
they were buried there — but Kelley was brought into Camp and 
buried under arms — Such is British Clemency & mercy ! And 
with this tour of Duty my time of service in the Continental 
Army expired — I then return'd to head quarters at Morristown 
Febry. 15th, 1777: And being discharged, from thence waded 
in the snow on foot home to my fathers house — And may I 
add that my heart was impressed with the tenderest sensations, 



30 A SACRIFICE OF '' SEVEXTV-S/X" 

and I trust with Gratitude & thankfulness to God that my Hfe 
was spared, while alas my companions were slain by my side & 
left in their graves — 

NB: — The Logical advice of Colo. Scott when we were 
going into a skirmish one day I always remember, & the glib 
manner in which he spoke it — said he — "Take care now & 
fire low, bring down your pieces, fire at their legs, one man 
wounded in the leg is better than a dead one, for it takes two 
more to carry him off, & there is three gone — leg them, dam 'em 
I say leg them." 

When the enemy destroyed the publick stores at Danbury 
(april 26-1777) & burnt the town, there was not enough of us 
collected to make any resistance, but the next day as they return'd 
by the way of Ridgfield had a skirmish with them there, a number 
kill'd on both sides — Genl.Wooster mortally-wounded I saw him a 
little before the Action began but not afterward — slept in a 
barn — next day followed them to Wilton — slept that night 
in Marvins barn — next day followed them to Compo where we 
attack'd them while going on board their Ships — Lt. Seeley 
mortally wounded — a number of others killed & wounded. 

Colo Ivnowlton who comanded the rear Guard of our Army 
in the Retreat from N. York being mortally wounded & the 
enemy pressing upon them ordered his men who were trying to 
bring him off to take him aside out of the road that he might die 
alone where the enemy could not see him & abuse him John 
Terrill of our Company was there with him. 

One peculiar circumstance I here state, as a remarkable 
occurrence — A Soldier in my family mess Paul Todd of Mass- 
achusetts, in the evening of one day when we had been skirmish- 
ing with the enemy on the lines near Brunswick while we were 
at supper found a musket ball lodged in a piece of bread which 
he had carried all day upon his back in his pack ; we immediately 
made search to find how it got there; but to our astonishment 
for some time could not find any bullet hole in his pack, but at 
length it was found on that side of his Pack which was next to 
his back, we then searched his cloaths & found a bullet hole in 
the back of his coat, our wonder still increasing he striped off 
his clothes & found that the ball had passed through all his 
cloaths in a slanting direction, & passed first through the elbow 
of his coat, then entered the side of his coat under the arm, went 
thro his coat & his vest & shirt i\: so into his pack & bread, the 
force being spent it lodged there. — 



NATHAN HALE 31 



I will now make some observations upon the amiable & 
unfortunate Capt. Nathan Hale whose fate is so well known 5 
for I was with him in the same Regt. both at Boston & New 
York & until the day of his tragical death : & although of inferior 
grade in office was always in the habits of friendship & intimacy 
with him : & my remembrance of his person, manners & char- 
acter is so perfect that I feel inclined to make some remarks 
upon them : for I can now in imagination see his person & hear 
his voice — his person I should say was a little above the 
common stature in height, his shoulders of a moderate breadth, 
his limbs strait & very plump : regular features — very fair skin — 
blue eyes — tiaxen or very light hair which was always kept short — 
his eyebrows a shade darker than his hair & his voice rather 
sharp or piercing — his bodily agility was remarkable I have 
seen him follow a football & kick it over the tops of the trees in 
the Bowery at New York (an exercise which he was fond of) — 
his mental powers seemed to be above the common sort — his 
mind of a sedate and sober cast, & he was undoubtedly Pious ; 
for it was remarked that when any of the soldiers of his company 
were sick he always visited them & usually prayed for & with 
them in their sickness. — 

A little anecdote I will relate ; one day he accidentally came 
across some of his men in a bye place playing cards — he spoke 
— what are j'ou doing — this won't do, — give me your cards, 
they did so, & he chopd them to pieces, & it was done in such a 
manner that the men were rather pleased than otherwise — his 
activity on all occasions was wonderful — he would make a pen 
the quickest. & the best of any man 

Inumerable instances of occurrances which took place in the 
Army I could relate, but who would care for them : Pehaps it 
may be thought by some that I have already been at the 
expence of Prolixity : nobody in these days feels as I do, left 
here alone, & they cannot if they would, but to me it is a melan- 
coly pleasure to go back to those Scenes of fear & anguish & 
after the laps of 50 years (1826 was in my 78th. year) to rumenate 
upon them which I think I can do with as bright a recollection 
as though they were present — One more reflection I will make 
— why is it that the delicious Capt Hale should be left & lost 
in an unknown grave & forgotten ! — 

The foregoing Statements were mde from Memory & recol- 
lection & from documents & Memorandoms which I kept. 

Elisha Bostwick 



32 .1 SACRIFICE OF '' SErENTV-Sl.V" 

N. B. Soon after my return from the Army I received a 
Lieutenants Commission in the Militia afterwards a Captains 
Commission & served in various terms of duty in Alarms to the 
close of the War : during the War was in six actions, to wit : 
that at Whte Plains — at Trenton — Princeton — Quibbletown — 
Ridgefleld & Compo— in the later part of the War a Captain 

Elisha Bostwick — 
born in Newmilford — 

Deer. 17th— (O. S.) 1748 



Excerpt from \\'atson Sperry's Editorial in Hartford 

COURANT. 

" This old document is as fresh and vivid as if it were written 
yesterday * « * q^ during the days when Hale 
kicked the football over the trees in the old New York Bowery 
or turned his masterly hand to making a quill pen. * * * 
the young man comes before us in these old lines as vigorous 
and undaunted as on the day when the British hanged him. It 
was all in the day's work. Young men are doing the same thing 
in Europe today and with the same belief in their duty. * * * 
Hale did not pull back from death even when it faced him in its 
meanest form. He knew that that also was in his day's work. 

* * * So out of this old manuscript the young captain 
steps again in his immortal youth. He stands just over yonder, 
with blue eyes and light hair cut short, with straight legs and 
regular features, of good height and with well set shoulders — a 
personable and solid young man, with a body fit for the sports 
of youth and for the length of days required by old age. * * * 
Military necessity knows nothing of what is glibly labelled dan- 
gerous or disgraceful. If a thing has to be done, in war, it has 
to be done, and some brave and capable soul has to do it. 

* * * Thus young Hale died tranquilly for duty's sake, 
and for Washington's sake, and for this country's sake ; and it is 
thus that he lives in his buoyant and immortal youth, just as he 
steps out of this old manuscript. He is one of the fortunate few 
who do not die. * * * When Sir William Howe 
ordered him to be strung up he no doubt meant to make an end 
to the young American captain, but in fact he made the begin- 
ning of him. From that moment young Hale passed from an 
engaging and capable personality into an enduring national 
symbol. 



NATHAN HALE 



33 



It is that change that gives to this old manuscript its value 
and its charm ; for it shows us the young man as he was when 
he went about among men on this earth, not knowing that a 




MADAMK H CKKTIA SHAW 
The Patron Saint of Lucietia Shaw Chapter, I>. A. R., New London, Conn. 

hundred millions of people would welcome him again a hundred 
years later as a living example and symbol of patriotic duty fully 
performed. 



34 



A SACRIFICE OF ^^SEVEXTY-S/\- 




JVA THA N HA LE 35 



" And one there was— his name immortal now — 
Who died not to the ring of rattling steel, 
Or battle-march of spirit.stirring drum, 
Birt, far from comrades and from friendly camp, 
Alone upon the scaffold." 

Madame Lucretia Shaw, whose noble name the Daughters of 
the New London Chapter, I). A. R., are proud to bear, and whose 
gracious memory they would perpetuate in grateful acknowledg- 
ment of her life of unselfish devotion and the sacrifice of her 
early death in the cause of American freedom, was the devoted 
wife of Nathaniel Shaw, Jr., " An em.inent merchant and a most 
etificient representative of the Continental Congress in naval 
affairs during the ' War of Independence.' " 

"One of the earliest acts of Congress, after the Battle of 
Bunker Hill, was the authorization, under the hand of John 
Hancock, for the issue to Nathaniel Shaw, Esci., of a Commis- 
sion as Naval Agent for the Continent," and " From this period ," 
writes Miss Caulkins, " During the remainder of the struggle, 
as an accredited agent of Congress and the Colony, Mr. Shaw 
furnished stores, negotiated the exchange of prisoners, provided 
for sick seamen, and exercised a general care for the public 
service." 

The Shaw Mansion was erected in 1753, by Nathaniel Shaw, 
Sr., and the stone of which it was built was quarried from the 
grounds. The house was always famous for its hospitality, and 
official guests and distinguished strangers visiting New London 
in Colonial days, or during the great war movement, were enter- 
tained at the Shaw Mansion. 

Governor Trumbull was the personal friend of the Shaw 
family, and in its home General Washington, General Green, 
Governor Griswold, and all the men of note in the colony were 
welcome visitors, and Nathan Hale, while he was " Master " of 
the " Union School " of New London, was a frequent guest by 
the hearthstone of his ''genial trustee." 

The Shaw Mansion is now the property of the New London 
County Historical Society, it having been purchased by that 
association from Miss Jane Richards Perkins, the last occupant, 
and the last local descendant of the Shaw family. 

In the Mansion's portrait gallery, Lucretia Shaw from her 
position near the Washington guest chamber, still looks down 
upon all observers — "preserved through the genius of the artist 
Copley" — a stately matron, " In gloss of satin and glimmer of 
pearls," gracefully holding a red, red rose in one shapely hand. 



36 



A SACRIFfCE OF*'' SEVENTY-SIX 




S5 O 
< - 






NATHAN HALE 37 



" With an open hand to want, and ever a pitying eye for 
suffering," the last act of Lucretia Shaw's life, and the occasion 
of her death, was her devotion to some sick prisoners whom she 
had received into her home. In her sympathy and her charity, she 
manifested an unfailing spirit of impartiality, and from these 
suffering sailors, the victims of ship fever, Lucretia Shaw con- 
tracted the illness which proved fatal, and her beautiful, useful 
life was ended while she was yet in her prime, and her husband 
survived her but a few months. 

The last male resident of the Shaw Mansion, Mr. Nathaniel 
Shaw Perkins— the brother of Miss Jane Richard Perkins — was 
the executor of the estate of the late Judge John P. C. Mather 
of New London. Among valuable and interesting papers, Mr. 
Perkins discovered a letter written by Nathan Hale, while he 
was teaching in New London, to a young woman who subse- 
quently became an ancestor of Judge Mather. In this letter 
Nathan Hale requested of the youthful maiden, the pleasure 
of escorting her that evening " to sit on the rocks beJiind the Shaw 
house to watcli the sunset tn'er the jvciterr 

This brief note, preserved by the fair damsel to whom it was 
addressed, proved, strange to say, the most valuable asset in 
Judge Mather's estate, and it was purchased by a Chicago col- 
lector for $975.00. 

"When Arnold burnt the town," the torch was applied to the 
roof of the Shaw Mansion by Arnold's Tory incendiaries. The 
adjoining house was the residence of the Christophers, a family 
famous for its Tory proclivities, but very friendly to the Shaws. 

The charming Christopher girls — and there was a bevy of 
them— detained and entertained the British officers on the south 
side of the Christopher house, while a Mr. Jones, who was 
married to one of the Christopher girls, extinguished the fire 
and spared the historic Shaw Mansion to its grateful owner and 
to later and admiring generations. 

During the Spanish- American war Miss Jane Richard Perkins 
was the regent of Lucretia Shaw Chapter of New London, and 
in this historic old Shaw Mansion history repeated itself when 
Lucretia Shaw's " Daughters " met at the home of their " War 
Regent " — as they were pleased and proud to call Miss Perkins 
— to work for the suffering soldiers and sailors, and valuable 
assistance was rendered to the " Red Cross " by wilhng hands 
under the supervision of the "War Regent" and her efficient 
committee. 



38 



A SACRIFICE OF^^' SEVEN? V-S IX 




NATHAN HALE 



39 



The historic Hempstead house, " A fortified house," one of 
the show places of New London, built in 1643, ^"d the birth- 
place of Sergeant Stephen Hempstead, born May 6, 1754, the 
fourth in descent from Sir Robert Hempstead, knight, the immi- 
grant, whose ancestor once saved the life of Charles The First, and 
received the royal accolade from the sword of a grateful sovereign. 

Sergeant Stephen Hempstead, the confidential friend of 
Nathan Hale, was left for dead on the battlefield of Harlem 
Plains, but he lived " to fight another day " at the storming of 
Fort Griswold on Groton Heights, opposite New London, Sept. 
6, 1781, " When Arnold burnt the town." 

At the Groton massacre. Sergeant Hempstead was wounded 
in the left elbow by a ball, and in the right hip by a bayonet 
thrust which lamed him for life. Never weary of relating to his 
grand-children the stories of the Revolutionary war he " should- 
ered his crutch and showed how fields were won;" saying: 
" If I should have to suffer a thousand fold, or even death, I 
would gladly endure the suffering, or offer my life if necessary, 
for the sake of my dear country." 

Stephen Hempstead died in St. Louis, in 1831, and was 
buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery, which was a part of the 
original plantation where he settled when he moved from New 
London in 181 1 . 

A bronze tablet on the Hempstead house bears this inscrip- 
tion : 

In honor of 

.STEPHEN HEMP.STEAl) 

l)orn here 

May 6th, 1754 



Distinguished for bravery 

at the 

Raitle of Groton Heu;hts 

Sett 6th. 1781 



Erected Isy the 

STEI'HEN HEMI'SIEAD Societv 

C. A. R. 



40 A SACRIFICE OF*'' SEVENTY-SIX'' 

Stephen Hempstead's son Edward, a lawyer, born in New 
London in 1780, was admitted to the bar in 1801, and began the 
practice of law in Rhode Island. Moved to St. Louis in 1805 ; 
was Attorney-General for upper Louisiana in 1809-11 ; and was 
the first delegate to Congress from all the territory west of the 
Mississippi River. During Edward Hempstead's terms in 
Congress, Henry Clay was '• Speaker," and Daniel Webster, 
John Randolph, and John C. Calhoun were among the great men 
who composed the " House." 

It is interesting to note that the first two delegates from this 
new territory were Connecticut men, Edward Hempstead and 
Rufus Easton. 

The Hempstead house was also the birthplace of Sheriff 
Joshua Hempstead, who, mounted on his famous black horse, 
playfully named " Deputy Sherifif/' carried the despatches 
between Boston and New London during the Revolutionary war, 
and bringing the news of the battle of Bunker Hill in a day and 
a night, a distance, as the road was then traveled, of one 
hundred and ten miles, and Sherit)^^ Joshua was no " light-weight." 

The story has been related when, at a comparatively recent 
date, the sheriff's bones were removed from one cemetery to 
another, " Men gazed with wonder at his colossal frame, whose 
huge jawbone would have fitted easily as a visor over any modern 
countenance." 

His great gun, of a make prior to that of the old Queen's 
arm still rests on the hooks in the " summer-tree," a rafter run- 
ning along the "keeping room " ceiling in the Hempstead house. 

Elizabeth Wells Champney, in her inimitable way, tells the 
amusing story of Joshua's grand-daughter, pretty Patty Hemp- 
stead, and her adaptibihty to the sumptuary laws. 

Desirous of shining resplendent at a ball to be given in honor 
of the naval officers, in New London, and the purchase of a new 
gown being out of the question, at that particular time, Patty 
desecrated the blue satin, embroidered waistcoat of her knightly 
ancestor with a pair of rash little scissors, which changed the 
garment of stateliness into a " jockey " or jacket, which, when 



A^A Til A N HA LE 41 



worn over an India muslin must have been " marvellous 
becoming"' to pretty Patty Hempstead. The ancient garment 
was restored to its original shape as nearly as possible, but it 
still bears the marks of the snippings of the scissors which 
adapted it to the softer outlines of the feminine form. 

Tradition says that Patty Hempstead taught the first school 
in New London, the expenses of which were defrayed by the 
town's money, but tradition also presents a rival claimant for 
that honor in the person of Nancy Collins who taught what was 
designated as the "Poverty School," near Hill Street, which 
was, at that time called " Poverty Hill." 

September 6, 1781, was the date appointed for a gathering of 
the Hempstead clan at the Hempstead House, and many of Sir 
Robert's descendants were expected from all the regions round- 
about. Goodwife Hempstead was preparing a big dinner, but 
her first arrivals were uninvited and unexpected guests who were 
clad — not in the wedding garments of Holy Writ, but — in the 
red of that " snuffy old drone from the German Hive," for that 
arch-traitor Arnold and his Tory incendiaries were burning the 
town. 

" Madame," said the ofificer, addressing the matron, " Your 
dinner announces itself to hungry men, and will be very welcome. 
We shall dine with you, and you will dine with us." When they 
had voraciously satisfied their hunger by feasting upon the tooth- 
some viands prepared for the Hempstead scions, their leader 
expressed his approval ; " Madame," said he, " Your dinner was 
most excellent, and in consideration of your enforced hospitality 
we will spare your house," but these minions of His Majesty 
Georgius Secundus entered Goodwife Hempstead's dairy and 
bayoneted all her choice cheeses, and they visited Goodman 
Hempstead's cellar and removed all the spigots from the barrels 
of rum — after generously sampling the contents thereof — and 
they failed not to remove the spigots from the barrels of molasses 
also ; then — they departed for pastures new. 

And this is the true story of how the old historic Hempstead 
House was saved from the torch on that memorable sixth day of 
September, 1781, " When Arnold burnt the town." 



42 



A SACRIFICE OF " SEVENT7'-SIX' 



HALE MEMORIALS. 

The Hale Headstone in the South Coventry Cemeterj', placed 
by the loving members of the Hale family more than a century 
ago bears this impressive inscription : 




HALE TOMBSTOxNK 
In Cemetery in South Coventry, Conn. 

l)ural)le stone preserve the monumental record. Nathan 
Hale, Esq. a Capt in the army of the United States who 
was born June 6th, 1755 and receiv'd the first honors of Yale 
College Sept. 1773, resigned his life a sacrifice to his country's 
liberty at New York Sept. 22nd, 1776. Etatis 22d 

The first public memorial that commemorates Nathan Hale 
was a fort built during the war of 1 8 1.2- 14 at the entrance of New 
Haven harbor, Fort Hale. 

In the old Congregational meeting-house, where the Hale 
family worshiped, the Hale Monument Association was formed 
in 1836 or ''■^■j. An appropriation of Si, 200 was obtained from 
the State of Connecticut. Fairs, tea parties, social functions, 
and enterprises by the fair sex secured the additional amount, 
and in 1846 the monument was erected. It is a shaft of Quincy 
granite forty-five feet in height. At one of the fairs, a poem, 
addressed to the " Daughters of Freedom," printed on white 
satin was offered for sale, and contained these verses: 



NATHAN HALE 



43 







'8 

1 -^ 




TI^I^Kt^Kt^^B^ ^^ ^ 



XATHAN HALE MONl'MENT 

In Cemetery in South Coventry, Conn., erected in 1840 



" Ye come with hearts that oft have glowed 
At his soul-stirring tale, 
To wreath the deathless evergreen 
Around the name of Hale. 

" Here his memorial stone shall rise 
In freedom's hallowed shade, 
Prouder than Andre's trophied tomb 
'Mid mightiest monarchs laid." 

This Hale memorial stands upon elevated ground in front 
of the old burial ground in which rest the remains of the Hale 
family It was designed by Henry Austin, a New Haven man, 
and was erected under the supervision of Solomon Willard, the 
architect of the Bunker Hill monument. 

A bronze statue of Nathan Hale, on the grounds of the 
Wad.sworth Athenaeum, Hartford, was presented to that institu- 
tion by James J. Goodwin in 1894. 

On November 25, 1893, the Society of " Sons of the Revolu- 
ution in the State of New York " dedicated a bronze statue of 
Hale in the City Hall Park, New York. 

The State of Connecticut erected a bronze statue of Nathan 
Hale in the Capital building at Hartford in 1887. 



44 



A SACIi/FICE OF '' SE]^ENTY-SIX' 




NATHAN HAIJ': STATIK 

F^rpctcd ill City Mall l*;iik, New York City— A Taraile Ground (or Washington's Troops 

ill ITTi;— liy tlic Sons ol tlie Kevolution in the State of New York 



NATHAN HALE 45 



A memorial, in the form of a column with a fountain at its 
base, was erected by residents of the place, to commemorate the 
landing of Captain Hale at Huntington, Long Island. 

Mr. George Taylor of " Halesite," of Huntington, L. I., 
placed commemorative tablets on a boulder on the shore of the 
bay. 

"During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries," wrote 
Mr. Charles Barney Whittlesey, of Hartford, " There lived in 
the District of East Haddam, Conn., many of the good old New 
England families, whose members and descendants have helped 
to make the history of this ever progressive country of ours. 
* * * In 1745-50 it became apparent to those families 
in East Haddam that a schoolhouse was necessary in that district, 
and through their influence the building was erected. * * * 
About the first of November, 1773, Nathan Hale began his 
career as a teacher in that little building, which was located at 
the "forks " in the road between Moodus Landing and Chapman's 
Ferry. * * * Nathan Hale was then a strong, 

athletic youth of eighteen years. He had graduated from Yale 
College with honors and was well fitted for the profession he 
entered upon — but — he concluded that " East Haddam was too 
inaccessible, either by friends, acquaintances, or letters," so he 
removed to New London where he taught from May, 1774 to 
July, 1775- 

In 1799 a larger building was provided for the school, and 
Captain Elijah Atwood purchased the original schoolhouse, and 
having made an addition converted it into a dwelling. For one 
hundred years it was occupied by members and descendants of 
the Atwood family. In 1899, Judge Julius Atwood presented the 
building to Colonel Richard Henry Green, of New York, for the 
purpose of having it conveyed to the New York Society Sons of 
the Revolution. 

Colonel Green had the building removed, at his own expense, 
to its present site on the banks of the Connecticut River, and 
made the transfer of the property. The Connecticut Society 
Sons of the Revolution were asked to accept this historic school- 
house, where Nathan Hale began his career as a teacher, and 
the gift was accepted. 

Hon. Morgan G. Bulkeley, a native of East Haddam, pre- 
sented the Connecticut Society with eight acres of land which 
surrounds the schoolhouse, and it is known as the " Nathan Hale 
National Park." 



46 



A SACh'IF/CE OF 'SEVENTY-SIX 




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NATHAN HALE 



47 



The formal acceptance of the schoolhouse and park was 
arranged for the sixth day of June, 1900, the one hundred and 
forty-fifth anniversary of the birth of Nathan Hale, and the 




Marking the original site of the Nathan Hale Sclioolhouse in 
East Haddain, Conn. 

building became the headquarters of the Connecticut Sons of 
the Revolution where the annual meetings are held during the 
month of June. 



48 A SACIflFICE OF '' SEVENTY-SIX 



The ceremonies were combined with the Bi-centennial cele- 
bration of the town of East Haddam, and the unveihng of a 
bronze bust of Nathan Hale, by the townspeople, to mark the 
original site of the schoolhouse where Hale taught in the winter 
of 1773-74- 

Norwalk Chapter, D. A. R., in 1901 erected an ornamental 
fountain, for general use, opposite the city armory, at Norwalk, 
where Nathan Hale changed his picturesque uniform for the 
schoolmaster's disguise. 

A statue of Nathan Hale, by William Ordway Partridge, 
stands in one of the parks in St. Paul, Minnesota. It was erected 
by the Nathan Plale Chapter, D. A. R., of St. Paul. 

New London was on June 17, 1901, the Mecca of the Sons, 
Daughters and Children of the American Revolution from all 
over the State, and distinguished representatives from patriotic 
societies of other states made the pilgrimage to take part in the 
dedication of the restored "Union Schoolhouse" of New London, 
from which Nathan Hale resigned as "Master" to enter the 
Revolutionary army. 

The ancient building was purchased, removed and restored 
by the Connecticut Society, S. A. R., and it now occupies a 
position in "Ye Towne's Antientest Buriall Place" on Bulkeley 
Square and Huntington Street. 

The Nathan Hale Branch, S. A. R., marched through the 
city to the new site escorted by detachments of regulars and 
marines, the Moodus Drum Corps, the Putnam Phalanx, public 
school boys, and various societies and delegations. 

The exercises were opened with prayer by Rev. Edwin S. 
Lines, State Chaplain of the S. A. R. Ernest E. Rogers, Presi- 
dent of the Nathan Hale Branch of the Connecticut Society, 
extended a cordial welcome to the guests. The President of the 
State Society, S. A. R., Hon. Jonathan Trumbull, grandson of 
(Governor Trumbull of the Revolution, responded to the greeting 
and presented the keys of the schoolhouse to Mrs. Sara T. 
Kinney, State Regent of the Connecticut D. A. R., who accepted 
them for the Lucretia Shaw Chapter, of New London. 

Hon. Walter S. Logan, President-General of the National 
Society, S. A. R., delivered the oration, which was followed by 
an historical address by Prof. Henry Phelps Johnston, of the 
College of the City of New York, who was at that time preparing 
his first edition of the " Life of Nathan Hale." 



NATHAN HALE 49 



Marcus Towne, a pupil of Nathan Hale Grammar School, of 
New London, the son of Walter A. Towne, Principal of Bulkeley 
High School for boys, recited Judge Finch's poem, " Hale's 
Fate and Fame," the assembly joined in singing America and 
the exercises closed with the benediction by Rev. S. Leroy 
Blake, D. D., Chaplain of the Nathan Hale Branch, of New 
London. 

A bronze tablet, over the fireplace, in this building, the gift 
of the Nathan Hale Branch of S. A. R., of New London, bears 
this inscription : 

NATHAN HALE 

Teacher Patriot Martyr 

1755 1776 

' Any service necessary for the public good becomes honorable 
by being necessary." 

"This schoolhouse was purchased and restored in 1901 by 
the Connecticut Society, Sons of the American Revolution, 
assisted by the Daughters of the American Revolution, that it 
might be preserved to the honor and memory of Nathan Hale, 
who resigned his service as teacher to enter the service of his 
country." 

This tablet was unveiled by young Nathan Hale, a great- 
great-grandchild of Rev. Enoch Hale, a brother of Nathan Hale. 

The fire set was the gift of the Stephen Hempstead Society, 
Children of the American Revolution, in memory of the close 
friendship that existed between Nathan Hale and Stephen 
Hempstead. 

The flag, also a gift of the Stephen Hempstead Society, 
C. A. R., was raised by Mrs. Marion Hempstead Lillie, Organ- 
izing President of the Stephen Hempstead Society, C. A. R., 
assisted by Miss Mary Hempstead Dill, of St. Louis, a great- 
grand-daughter of Stephen Hempstead. 

" To teach, it was young Nathan's choice, 
Thus did his nature find its voice 
In service for his fellow men. 
At first, not with the sword, but pen. 
This brought him to New London town, 
A place e'en then of much renown. 

" In yonder schoolhouse young Hale taught. 
There freedom's battle first was fought, 
For in the school as well as church 
The dominie ne'er shirked the birch. 



qo A SAC/UF/CE OF '' SE]'EXTV-S/.\ 



Within that sclioolrooni furnace heat. 
Did not make winter's cold retreat ; 

******* 
'" No patent ventilator gave 

The ozone that 'tis said will save 

The student from untimely grave. 

For through the school walls everywhere 

Did fully circulate the air. 

****** 
" Vet here did Hale his work begin 

In young men's heads, of putting in 

The seed thought, which in time will grow. 

And often glorious har\ est know." 

The above lines are quoted from a poem written in June, 1901, 
by Rev. John E. Hurlburt, the son of Rev. Joseph Hurlburt, 
whose home was " Mount Vernon," on Court House Square, 
New London, at present the residence of Mrs. Elisha Palmer. 

At the conclusion of the address of welcome, by Mr. Ernest 
E. Rogers, an aged man leaned over his shoulder and said : " I 
knew Alice Adams." Later this man's name was ascertained 
to be Henry Allyn Stillman, and his address was 100 Woodmont 
Street, Hartford, Conn. 

On April 26, 1902, in reply to a letter from Mr. Rogers, Mr. 
Stillman wrote : " Your letter of the 23rd inst. relating to the 
dedication of the Nathan Hale Schoolhouse at New London 
on the 17th of last June was duly received and brought to mind 
afresh the grand occasion and the bright day with all the 
accessories of military and crowds of people full of good cheer, 
who all in their different ways enjoyed to the full the enthusiasm 
of the day. I look back to that day with entire satisfaction and 
am very glad that I was one of the boys that marched in the pro- 
cession to the Nathan Hale Schoolhouse." 

Mr. Stillman was eighty-six years old and was the grandson 
of a Revolutionary patriot. " He marched," writes Mr. Rogers, 
■'between two 'real sons,' James M. Grant, eighty-five years 
old, the son of Hamilton Crant, and Henry H. Ouintard, eighty- 
eight years old, the son of James ()uintard." 

At that date, June 17, 1901, New London could boast of two 
" real sons," William and John Burbeck, sons of Brigadier-Gen- 
eral Henry Burbeck, of New London. William Burbeck, with 
the flowing blue ribbons attached to the insignia of the Society 
of the Cincinnati, — which is always the inheritance of the oldest 
son — was a striking figure in the procession on that "rare" day 
in June. 



NATHAN HALE 



51 



General Burbeck was military commander of the New London 
district during the War of 181 2, and he retired from the army at 
the end of that war and made his home in New London, in the 
house next north of the Johnston Block on Main Street. 

General Burbeck had passed thirty-eight years of his life in 
the service of his country, he having been a captain of artillery 
in the War of the Revolution. His death occurred on October 
2, 1848, at the age of ninety-four. 

A monument to General Burbeck's memory was erected in 
Cedar Grove Cemetery, New London, by the Massachusetts 
Society of the Cincinnati, of which, at the time of his decease. 




" VE TOWXES AXTIENTEST BCRIALL PLACE'' * 

Opened in 1G53 on Meeting House Hill, Hulkeley Square. The last resting place of the early settlers 

of New London, Conn. The grave of Captain Richard Lord is marked by the oldest 

inscribed stone in New London County. Madame Lucretia Shaw's tomb 

is above the star, and outlined against the Bulkeley School building 



" Yet the birds sing as gaily over thy wall.' 
The golden sunbeam as brightly falls, 
The grasses spring and the daisies blow 
The same as a hundred years ago. 

And the busy world goes by at thy feet 
Through another city's surging street ; 
Up and down, in gladness, in tears. 
Go the children of men as in other years." 



A SA CRIFICE OF '' SEl ENTY-SIX " 



he was president, and the last survivor, but one, of the charter 
members of that Society. 

The General's son William died in 1905, at the age of eighty- 
one : the younger son, John, died in 1904, at the age of seventy- 
eight. 

The Nathan Hale Grammar School, a large brick building on 
Lincoln Avenue, Williams and Waller Streets, New London, 
erected in 1890. 

A bronze statue of Nathan Hale, designed by Bela Lyon 
Pratt, was erected in 1914, on the east side of "Connecticut 
Hall," the only building of Hale's time now remaining on the 
campus at Yale College. 

The front face of the pedestal bears this inscription : 

NATHAN HALE 

1755 1776 

Class of 1773 

On the back : 

A Gift to Vale College 

By Friends and Graduates 

Anno Domini MCMXIV 

Bela Lyon Pratt, of St. Botolph Studios, though many years 
a resident of Boston, Connecticut claims him as her son. He 
was born in Norwich, Conn. ; " Modeled and drew at home when 
a child ; " studied at the Yale School of the Fine Arts under 
Professors Wier and Niemeyer. Entered Art Students League, 
N. Y., 1887, studying under Augustus St. Gaudens; student at 
Paris, 1890 — of Chapu and Falquiere — entered Ecole des Beaux 
Arts same year ; received two medals and two prizes while in 
Paris. 

Since 1892, Mr. Pratt has produced many works in sculpture. 
A series of four medalions, " The Seasons," in pavilion of Library 
of Congress; various groups for Buffalo Exposition; Statue, 
Phillips Brooks, Brooks House, Cambridge; John Winthrop, 
the Younger, New London, Conn. ; Andersonville Monument for 
State of Connecticut, Andersonville, Georgia ; Harvard Spanish 
War Memorial, &c., &c. 

Mr. Pratt's father, George Pratt, was graduated from Yale 
College and a prominent lawyer in Norwich. When a student 
at Yale he occupied one of the rooms on the ground floor of 
Connecticut I lall near where his son's statue of Hale now stands. 



NATHAN HALE 53 



Mr. Pratt's mother was the daughter of Oramel Whittlese5^ 
the founder of the famous Music Vale Seminary, in Salem, Conn., 
and Mr. Pratt has a summer home on the Music Vale estate. 

There is no memorial to Nathan Hale, Connecticut's " Martyr 
Spy" in Washington, the Nation's Capitol, although there are 
statues of men who have rendered much less meritorious service 
to their country. 

In Statuary Hall, in the Capitol, Connecticut is represented 
by the statues of Roger Sherman and Jonathan Trumbull, which 
were presented to the government by the State of Connecticut 
in 1872. 

During the summer of 1914, Congressman Augustine Loner- 
gan, of Hartford, introduced in the house of representatives a 
bill, calling for a government appropriation of one hundred 
thousand dollars for the erection of a monument, on the public 
grounds at Washington, D. C, in memory of the Revolutionary 
patriot and distinguished son of Connecticut, Nathan Hale. 

A petition, signed by members of Lucretia Shaw Chapter, 
Daughters of the American Revolution of New London, Conn., 
was presented to Congressman Bryan F. Mahan of New London, 
and in the autumn of 1914, a second bill, advocating the mem- 
orial to Nathan Hale, was presented by Congressman Mahan. 

It is hoped that Connecticut's Martyr, so long overlooked by 
the national government, may soon receive a favorable, though 
long deferred recognition. 

Major General Hull, an officer of the Revolutionary army, 
left this interesting account of Nathan Hale : " Thus fell an 
amiable and as worthy a young man as America could boast. 
* * * his motives for engaging in this service were 
entirely different from which generally influence others in similar 
circumstances. Neither expectation of promotion, nor pecuniary 
reward, induced him to this attempt. 

A sense of duty, a hope that he might in this way be useful 
to his country, and an opinion, which he had adopted, that every 
kind of service necessary to the public good, become honorable, 
by being necessary, were the great motives, which induced him 
to engage in an enterprise, by which his connections lost a most 
amiable friend, and his country one of its most promising sup- 
porters. * * * 'Pq ggg such a character, in the 
flower of youth, cheerfully treading in the most hazardous paths, 
influenced by the purest intentions, and only emulous to do good 
to his country, without the imputation of a crime, fall a victim 
to policy, must have been wounding to the feelings, even of his 



54 . A SACA'/F/CE OF '' SErENTY-S/X" 



enemies. * * * ^q ^^g memory of Andre, his country 
have erected the most magnificent monuments, and bestowed on 
his family the highest honors, and most liberal rewards. 

To the memory of Hale, not a stone has been erected, nor an 
inscription to preserve his ashes from insult." 

This excerpt is taken from Miss Hannah Adams' " History 
of New England," published in 1799. 

HALE'S FATE AND FAME, 
read at the centennial anniversary of the Linonia Society of Yale 
College, in 1853, during Commencement week, by its author, 
Francis Miles Finch, Judge of the New York Court of Appeals. 

To drum-beat and heart-beat 

A soldier marches by ; 
There is color in his cheek, 

There is courage in his eye, 
Yet to drum-beat and heart-beat 

In a moment he must die. 

By starlight and moonlight 

He seeks the Briton's camp, 
He hears the rustling flag, 

And the armed sentry's tramp — 
And the starlight and moonlight 

His silent wanderings lamp. 

With slow tread and still tread 

He scans the tented line, 
And he counts the battery guns 

By the guant and shadowy pine ; 
And his slow tread and still tread 

Give no warning sign. 

The dark wave, the plumed wave ! 

It meets his eager glance ; 
And it sparkles 'neath the stars 

Like the glimmer of a lance ; 
A dark wave, a plumed wave. 

On an emei"ald expanse. 

A sharp clang, a steel clang ! 

And tenor in the sounds; 
For the sentry, falcon-eyed. 

In the camp a spy had found ; 
With a sharp clang, a steel clang. 

The patriot is bound. 

With calm brow, steady brow. 

He listens to his doom; 
In his look there is no fear 

Nor a shadow trace of gloom ; 
But with calm brow and steady brow 

He robes him for the tomb. 



NATHAN HALE 55 



In the long night, the StilJ night, 

He kneels upon the sod ; 
Ane the brutal guards withhold 

E'en the solemn Word of God ! 
In the long night, the still night. 

He walks where Christ hath trod. 

'Neath the blue morn, the sunny morn, 

He dies upon the tree; 
And he mourns that he can lose 

But one life for Liberty ; 
And in the blue morn, the sunny morn. 

His spirit-wings are free. 

His last words, his message words, 

They burn, lest friendly eye 
Should read how proud and calm 

A patriot could die. 
With his last words, his dying words, 

A <oldier's battle-cry ! 

From Fame-leaf and angel-leaf, 

F"rom monument and urn. 
The sad of Earth, the glad of Heaven, 

His tragic fate shall learn ; 
And on Fame-leaf and angel-leaf. 

The name of Hale shall l^urn ! " 

"Judge Finch's poem on Hale," wrote Mr. Seymour," Though 
not equal in merit to his Civil War poem entitled, 'The Blue and 
the Grey,' struck a responsive chord, and through the medium 
of the old-fashioned school ' Readers ' of years ago, brought 
Hale's story before the school children of the entire country.' " 

Quoting again from Mr. Seymour: "I think it is not too 
much to say that this poem did more than anything else to keep 
Hale's memory fresh during the latter part of the last century." 

" In this estimate of Judge Finch's poem on Hale," continues 
Mr. Seymour, " I am confirmed by the venerable Dr. Dwight, 
whose grandfather, the first President Dwight, was a college 
tutor, as well as a friend and correspondent of Hale, and who 
paid Hale a touching tribute in his epic, entitled, ' The Conquest 
of Canaan,' which with youthful precocity he began at nineteen 
and finished at twenty-two. It is a curious fact that this poem, 
once so greatly admired, would now be all but forgotten except 
for the ten lines which Dwight introduced, as a trioute to Hale, 
after he had finished the poem.' " 

Excerpt from Mr. George Dudley Seymour's " Familiar 
Hale," " An attempt to show by what standards of age, appear- 
ance and character the proposed statue of Nathan Hale for the 
Campus of Yale College should be judged," published in 1907. 



S6 



A SACRIFICE OF ' SEVEXTY-SIX" 



" There is no existing portrait of Nathan Hale. * * * 
There is reference to a miniature * * * which 

must now be regarded as irretrievably lost. * * * 
Such accounts as we have of Hale bring before us a handsome, 
frank and lively fellow of winning naturalness. He belonged to 
the epic age of homespun; he came from sturdy stock; he was 
country bred ; there is no reason for believing that he was in any 




GEORGE DUDLEY SEYMOUK, 
Owner and rrcscrvcr of the Hale HoiiiestPart in South Coventry, Conn. 

way different in appearance or breeding from the average country 
boy brought up on a farm by God-fearing, hard-working parents. 
I le was a good scholar, but he found time for the full enjoyment 
of student life. Of his great popularity with his classmates there 
is abundant evidence. His modesty and manliness, his scholar- 
ship and his attractive personality, won friends for him just as 



NATHAJS HALE 57 



they win friends today. * * * His army life was too 
brief to have made a typical soldier of him, though his enjoy- 
ment of the social side of camp life is undisguised. * * * 
But the roughness of camp life can have had no attraction for 
him ; neither did he ever mix with the world enough to acquire 
the polish of a courtier. Generous of impulse, modest and 
unassuming, he had natural good manners rather than finished 
ease. His bringing up was homely — in the best sense. Gallant 
he undoubtedly was, but we should not think of applying that 
word to him. The tributes paid to him after his untimely fate 
breathe a different feeling. They point to a serious boy-nature 
which goes back of the stilted language of that day. 

" A poem * * * by a friend and companion of 
Hale during his student days at New Haven, gives probably the 
best picture we have of Hale, though it partakes of the extrava- 
gance of the elegiac poetry of the period. 

" Erect and tall, his well-proportioned frame, 

Vigorous and active, as electric flame ; 

His manly limbs had symmetry and grace, 

And innate goodness marked his beauteous face ; 

His fancy lively, and his genius great, 

His solid judgment shone in grave debate; 

For erudition far beyond his years ; 

At Yale distinguished above all his peers; 

Speak, ye who knew him while a pupil there, 

His numerous virtues to the world declare; 

His blameless carriage and his modest air. 

Above the vain parade and idle show 

Which marks the coxcomb and the empty beau ; 

Removed from envy, malice, pride, and strife. 

He walked through goodness as he walked through life ; 

A kinder brother nature never knew, 

A child more duteous or a friend more true." 

In the fading minutes * * * Qf ^^ Linonian 
Society, which was one of the great college institutions of Hale's 
time, it is recorded that at the anniversary exercises in 1773, the 
play given was " The Beaux' Stratagem," with Enoch Hale and 
James Hillhouse in the cast. After the play, as the scribe is 
careful to record, " We were very well entertained with a supper." 

The candles that lit that little supper after the play were 
extinguished nearly one hundred and forty years ago, and yet a 
faint light still streams through the door left half open for us by the 
youthful scribe and we get just a glimpse of the gay young per- 
formers. ********** 



58 .1 SACRIFICE OF - SEVENTY-SIX'' 

These were young men of high ideals, and it is pleasant to know 
they were classmates and friends. Hillhouse consecrated a life 
of unparalleled activity and devotion to the public good, and has 
no memorial in the city he served so well and so beautifully 
adorned with elms. ******** 

Nathan Hale's letters, and his soldier's diary that he kept during 
the last few months of his life, show what manner of man he 
was. 

* * * one feels his tragic fate with a sense of per- 
sonal loss. * * * j^Q^, whole-souled m friendship 
he must have been. * * * It is refreshing to find 
that Nathan was not too nice to use the slang of the day. Winter 
Hill, we read, was " stumped " to wrestle Prospect Hill. * * * 
There is not a despondent line or reflection in his entire diary. 

* * * The impression produced upon the reader by the 
original in the handwriting of Hale is incommunicable. 

" I like to think," continues Mr. Seymour, " That Hale went 
to his doom simply and quietly, thinking of the bright fields of 
his home in Coventry, of the ' Old Brick Row ' at New Haven, 
of his family and his friends; that he bore himself calmly — a 
brave fellow about to die. I can imagine him unflinching with- 
out but tremulous within — he was young, life was dear to him, 
the earth that he looked out upon was fair, friendship had been 
sweet to him, he did not want to die. It is inconceivable that 
he said his memorable last words — 'I only regret that I have 
but one life to lose for my country ' — with an heroic pose. 

* * * Unless Hale's statue takes its place on Yale's 
old Campus as naturally as the students of today take their 
places there, it must be counted a failure. If it is a self-conscious 
work, posed, theatrical, it will remain a solitary figure on the 
Campus — a thing apart from life, so much uncut bronze, an 
incumbrance. If it realizes Hale as he was. Hale as he lives in 
history. Hale as he has been enshrined in the hearts of Yale men 
since he for all time typified the Yale ideal, the work must be so 
direct in its appeal, so familiar in its spirit, that the students of 
today, as they pass back and forth, will feel that he is one of 
them — one of them in every way, but happily removed from the 
tumult of life, from loss and stain, and forever bright. 

" If Nathan Hale can thus be made to live again on the 
Campus in the sight of all Yale men, what an inspiration will be 
furnished them — * * ^ friend to leave with a sense of 
loss and to come back to with a renewing of the life of the heart. 
These are high standards, but can Yale accept for Nathan Hale 



NA THA N HA LE 59 



— her own hero — anything but the highest ? Is there a place ou 
the Campus for any statue of him except one * * * 
to portray him as he was, as he lives in the pages of his diary 
and in his letters and in the words of those who knew him best. 

" That Hale should have been entrusted with a grave and 
perilous errand, and that he should have had a captain's rank, 
shows how deeply his ability and the fine quality of his courage 
had impressed those about him. But those facts have led us to 
think of him as older than he was. It is hard to realize that, 
when Hale stood on the scaffold that Sunday morning, he was 
no older than the Junior of average age today. He died Sep- 
tember 22, 1776. His twenty-first birthday fell on the sixth of 
the previous June. 

" Undergraduates may well feel that Hale is one of them and 
claim him as a friend. His very youth brings him close to life 
on the Campus — lends brightness to his name, endears him to 
all who are quick to feel a modest and manly spirit." 

In a letter to Mr. George Dudley Seymour, in 1907, imme- 
diately after the appearance of " Familiar Hale," Judge Finch 
wrote : " I think you are entirely right in urging that the statue 
of Hale should represent his youth. There was in him not only 
patriotism and courage, but a young man's love of adventure 
and ambition to do things. He went to his work fearlessly, 
with a young man's abundant hope and disregard of danger. 
Let him stand on the Campus as the young man brave that he 
was." 

Mr. John S. Babcock, a poet of Hale's native place, paid a 
tribute to the memory of Nathan Hale from which are quoted 
the following verses : 

" He fell in the spring of his early prime, 
With his fair hopes all around him ; 
He died for his birth-land — a glorious crime, 
Ere the palm of his fame had crowned him. 

He fell in her darkness, he lived not to see 

The morn of her risen glory ; 
But the name of the brave, in the heart of the free. 
Shall be twined in her deathless story." 

Moses Coit Tyler, in his " History of American Literature," 
writes: * * " Nathan Hale, a most gallant and accom- 
plished young American, of a character stronger and more 
original, probably than Andre's, and certainly not less noble, 
* * * took upon himself, in the name of duty to his 



6o A SACRIFICE OF '' SEVENTY-SIX' 

country, the ignominy and the peril of becoming a spy. * * * 
The story of this young fellow's fearless devotion and death, has 
not been suffered to die or grow dim among us. Poems have 
been written about him. Statues have been reared to him. 
Anniversaries have been kept in his honor. 

Moreover, in the very year of his self-immolation, his fate was 
sung in a ballad, which for poetic quality — for weird pathos, for 
a strange sweet melody — probably deserves to be placed at the 
head of this entire class of writings as produced during the 
period of the Revolution." 

An author friend expresses this opinion : " The publication 
of this poem may, possibly, lead to the discovery of the author. 
It is interesting because a poem in ballad form, because early in 
date, because there is mystery about it, and because it may have 
unsuspected evidential value. 

It may be that the writer of it knew more about the circum- 
stances attending the capture of Hale than has been preserved 
in any other way." 

The reward of twenty-five dollars still holds good as no one 
has yet produced the author's name. 

"To discover the author of this poem would be a real achieve- 
ment, and might easily lead to the discovery of more knowledge 
than we now have of Hale.'' 

HALE IN THE RUSH. 



Hy an unknown poet of 177(i. 



The breezes went steadily thro' the tall pines, 
A-saying " oh 1 huush ! " a-saying"oh! hu-iish ! " 
As stilly stole by a bold legion of horse, 
For Hale in the l)ush, for Hale in the bush. 

" Keep still I " said the thrush as she nestled her young. 
In a nest by the road ; in a nest by the road ; 
'■ For the tyrants are near, and with them appear. 
What bodes us no good, what bodes us no good." 

The brave captain heard it, and thnn<;ht of his home, 
In a cot by the brook ; in a cot by the brook. 
With mother and sister and memories dear. 
He so gaily forsook ; he so gaily forsook. 

Cooling shades of the night were coming ajoace, 
'i"he tatoo had beat; the tatoo had beat. 
The noble one sprang from his dark lurking place. 
To make his retreat ; to make his retreat. 



N. I THA N HALE 6 1 



He warily trod on the dry rustling leaves, 

As he pass'd thro' the wood ; as he pass'd thro' the wood ; 

And silently gain'd his rude launch on the shore, 

As she play'd with the flood; as she play'd with the flood 

The guards of the camp, on that dark, dreary night, 
Had a murderous will ; had a murderous will. 
They took him and bore him afar from the shore 
To a hut on the hill ; to a hut on the hill. 

No mother was there, nor a friend who could cheer, 
In that little stone cell ; in that little stone cell. 
But he trusted in love, from his father above, 
In his heart all was well ; in his heart all was well. 

An omnious owl with his solemn bass voice. 
Sat moaning hard by; sat moaning hard by. 
" The tyrant's proud minions most gladly rejoice, 
For he must soon die ; for he must soon die." 

The brave fellow told them, nothing he restrain'd. 
The cruel gen'ral ; the cruel gen'ral ; 
His errand from camp, of the ends to be gained. 
And said that was all ; and said that was all. 

They took him and bound him and liore him away, 
Down the hill's grassy side ; down tlie hill's grassy side. 
'Twas there the base hirelings, in royal array. 
His cause did deride; his cause did deride. 

Five minutes were given, short moments, no more. 
For him to repent ; for him to repent ; 
He prayed for his mother — he asked not another — 
To Heaven he went ; to Heaven he went. 

The faith of a martyr the tragedy show'd. 
As he trod the last stage ; as he trod the last stage. 
And Britons will shudder at gallant Hale's blood, 
As his words do presage ; as his words clo presage. 

''Thou pale king of terrors, thou life's gloomy foe, 
Go frighten the slave, go frighten the slave ; 
Tell tyrants, to you their allegiance they owe — 
No fears for the brave, no fears for the brave ! " 

" Men from the First Church of Christ and its congregation 
were leaders in the Revolutionary struggle," wrote Rev. S. Leroy 
Blake, D. D., in his " History of the First Church o[ Christ, of 
New London." " Captain James Chapman, one of the men who 
led New Londoners to Bunker Hill ; Adam Shapley, who lost 
his life from wounds received in the battle of Groton Heights ; 
Peter Richards, who gave up his young life in that awful slaughter. 
Stephen Hempstead and Thomas Updike who were associates 
of Nathan Hale, and Nathan Hale himself, Jedediah Hunting- 
ton, who was on the staff of General Washington, Robert Hallam, 



A SACRIFICE OF "SEVENTY-SIX" 



Nathaniel Shaw, jr, and others, were the contributors of this 
church to the mighty struggle which ended in our national life." 

In Gilbert Saltonstall, a graduate of Harvard University, the 
son of General Gurdon Saltonstall, " Hale seems to have found 
a kindred spirit." He was the grandson of Rev. Gurdon Salton- 
stall, who resigned his pastorate of the First Church of Christ, 
of New London, to become the Governor of the Colony of 
Connecticut. Gilbert Saltonstall was one of the foremost young 
men of New London, by birth and culture, and the fact that 
Hale became his intimate friend and correspondent is significant 
of Hale's charm. 

Gilbert Saltonstall's letter to Nathan Hale, the postscript of 
which appeared on page 16 appears in this addenda by request : 

New London Dec' 18'^ 1775 
Dr Sir 

Yours of the 13"' Ins' duly rec'' for which am greatly obliged. 
The Post was not in fault in handing you a letter from me last 
Week, he could not deliver what he never was possessed of. — last 
Post Uay I was at Wethersfield w'' occasiond y' having no letter 
from me. 

I wholly agree with you in y' agreables of a Camp Life, and 
should have try'd it some Capacity or other before now, could 
my Father carry on his Business without me. I propose'd going 
with Dudley, who is appointed to Comm'' a Twenty Gun Ship in 
the Continental Navy, but my Father is not willing, and I can't 
persuade myself to leave him in the eve of Life against his con- 
sent *********** 

Yesterday week The Town was in the greatest confusion 
imagineable : Women wringing their Hands along Street, 
Children crying. Carts loaded till nothing more would stick on 
posting out of Town, empty ones driving in. one Person run- 
ning this way, another that, some dull, some vex'd, nonepleas'd, 
some flinging up an Intrenchment, some at the Fort preparing 
y' Guns for Action, Drums beating, Fifes playing : in short as 
great a Hubbub as at the confusion of Tongues ; all this occa- 
sioned by the appearance of a Ship and two Sloops off the 
Harbour, suppos'd to be part of Wallaces Fleet. — When they 
were found to be (Friends) Vessels from New Port with passen- 
gers y' consternation, abated, and all fell to work at the Intrench- 
ment, which runs from N. Douglasses to S. Bills Shop, they have 
been at work eversince Yesterday Week when the Weather would 
permit. 



NA THAN HALE 63 



They work'd Yesterday at Winthrops Neck and are (at) it 
there today. — In some respects we are similar to a Camp, for 
Sunday is no Day of rest now. — You would hear the small Chaps 
(who mimick Men in everything they can), cry out "Cut down 
the Tories Trees " there is not one of Cap' Jo : Coits Willows 
remaining in his Lot back of his House, they are appropriated 
to a better use than he would ever have put them to — The Breast- 
work is much the better for them. ***** 
What Brigadier has quitted y' Service, I learn there is a A^acancy ? 

The Soldiers can give no other Reason for not Enlisting than 
the old woman's, they wou'd not, cause the(y) wou'd not. 

My Compliments to Cap' Hull, am very sorry to hear of his 
Illness, hope this will find him recruited. 

I am with Sincerity 

Your Friend 

Gilbert Saltonstall. 

" Gilbert Saltonstall subsequently entered the privateer 
service, and was several times wounded in an action with a 
British cruiser, which in desperation and casualties recalled the 
sea fights of Paul Jones." 

This charming letter, written by a pupil of Nathan Hale's, 
the son of Major Latimer, of Hale's regiment, shows how Hale 
endeared himself to his pupils. 

Robert Latimer to Hale at Camp. 
Dr Sir, 

As I think myself under the greatest obligations to you for 
your care and kindness to me, I should think myself very 
ungratefull, if I neglected any opportunity of expressing my 
gratitude to you for the same. And I rely on that goodness, I 
have so often experienc'd to overlook the deficiencies in my 
Letter, which I am sensible will be many, as maturity of Judg- 
ment is wanting, and tho' I have been so happy as to be favour'd 
with your instructions, you can't Sir, expect afinish'd letter from 
one, who has as yet practis'd but very little this way, especially 
with persons of your nice discernment. 

Sir I have had the pleasure of hearing by the soldiers, which 
is come home, that you are in health, tho' likely to be deserted 
by all the men you carried down with you, which I am very sorry 
for, as I think no man of any spirit would desert a cause in which. 



64 A SACRIFICE OF '' SEVENTY-SIX" 

we are all so deeply interested. I am sure was my Mammy 
willing I think I should prefer being with you, to all the pleasures 
which the company of my Relations Can afford me. 

I am Sir with respect y"" sincere friend 
& very H'ble S* 

Rob' Laiimer. 
Dec^' 20"^ 1775 

P. S. My Mammy & aunt Lamb (?) presents Complim'' My 
Mammy would have wrote, but being very busy, tho't my writing 
would be Sufficient — My respects to Capt Hull 

Addressed to Capt. Hale 

"att Winter Hill" per 

fav'r of Ens. Hurlbut. 

Thomas U. Fosdick. to Hale at Camp 

New London, Dec 7, 1775 
Dear Sir 

Ever since the uneasiness, which I have heard, persisting 
amongst the Connecticut Troops, I've form'd a Resolution to go 
down to the assistance of my countrymen, to facilitate which I 
have resigned my office as Serjeant in Col. Saltonstall's Com'y — 
I make no doubt, Sir, but you can assist me to some such office, 
as I should choose to be in that station, under you in particular; 
if not I am determined to come down — a hearty Boy, undaunted 
by Danger. Ensign Hurlbut will write you concerning the above. 
Your in haste very hum'''*' Serv' 

Tho' Updike (Fosdick) 

The Betsey Christophers letter, which became the property of 
Yale University at such a princely price, ($1,575.00) referred to 
on page 18, is inserted here by request. 

Betsey Christophers was seven years Hale's senior, and the 
statement that she was a pupil of Hale's might not bear the 
acid test. 

From Camp "Winter Hill" Hale Wrote to Betsey 
Christopher.s, at New London. 

Camp Winter Hill Ocf 19"' 1775 
Dear Betsey 

I hope you will excuse my freedom in writing to you, as I 
cannot have the pleasure of seeing and conversing with you. 
What is now a letter would be a visit were I in New London 



NATHAN HALE 6s 



but this being out of my power suffer me to make up the defect 
in the best manner I can I write not to give you any news, or 
any pleasure in reading (though I would heartily do it if in my 
power) but from the desire I have of conversing with you in some 
form or other. 

I once wanted to come here to see something extraordinary 
— my curiosity is satisfied. I have now no more desire for seeing 
things here, than for seeing what is in New London, no, not half 
so much neither. 

Not that I am discontented — so far from it, that in the present 
situation of things I would not accept a furlough wer(e) it offered 
me. I would only observe that we often flatter ourselves with 
great happiness could we see such and such things ; but when 
we actually come to the sight of them our solid satisfaction is no 
more than when we only had them in expectation. 

All the news I had I wrote to John Hallam — if it be worth 
your hearing he will be able to tell you when he delivers this. 
It will therefore not (be) worth while for me to repeat. 

I am a little at a loss how you carry at New London — Jared 
Starr I hear is gone — The number of Gentlemen is now so few 
that I fear how you will go through the winter but I hope for the 
best. 

I remain with esteem 

Yr Sincere Friend 
& Kble Svt. 

N. Hale 

The quaint philosophy of Roger Alden, one of Hale's New 
Haven friends is too good to be omitted. 

* * * "for such Principles & Practices, which we 
experience every Day we live, contradict common sense & basely 
degrade what is so frequently stiled the greatest Excellence of 
human Nature, human Reason — But it is a common Observation 
& as true as it is old, that mankind may be led, but will never 
be drove — This we may observe in every stage of Life, from the 
Infant to fourscore years & Ten — this which seems to be innate 
and born with us, appears to me the greatest proof of univer- 
sal Depravity & Original Sin, that I can conceive of, but it is 
so always was & always will be — " 

Excerpt from address of Governor Simeon E. Baldwin, at 
Nathan Hale Schoolhouse at East Haddam, Conn., June 14, 
1913: 



66 A SAC/UF/CE OF ''SEl'EA'rV-S/.y 

"Two great sayings of two great Americans dwell in the 
nation's memory. 

" One came from a young man closing a short career, as 
short as it was glorious. The other came from a man of middle 
age who had for long years been rendering high public service 
in a great station. It was Lincoln's speech at Gettysburg. 
* * * The prevailing note of Lincoln's was humility 
before our soldier dead. The note of Hale's was a proud decla- 
ration of patriotic duty, the looking forward to becoming in a 
brief moment one of the soldier dead. It was but a few lines 
that Lincoln spoke. It was but a short sentence that fell from 
the lips of Hale. Both spoke from the heart; both spoke under 
the influence of the deepest feeling; both spoke to history." 



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